Happy new year to all!
It's been two months since my last blog; the fall to winter transition is a time for a team that can be both thrilling and a bit scary. The off season can be a critical time for the growth of a team. Is it time off court that is necessary for recovery from the summer and fall? Or could it be a focus on extra strength training to prepare for Spring matches? Is it a time for the team to come together and spend all their time working and playing together, or do they follow separate paths towards common goals? In reality, I have found it is all of these things. As a player in DIII, I never really felt like there was an off season, just a time when we practiced without coach and did more fitness. In my first seasons as a head coach it killed me to see my players around campus and not be able to get on court with them; but over the years I have seen that when they are self driven, learn to manage their breaks and know what they need to do both individually and as a team to be our best in Spring, that everyone gains from the built in flexibility provided by the NCAA.
Still, as a coach, I always want more, and as each year our team has given more of themselves to the process of what we're doing (and with the phenomenal fundraising brain child of Whit Men's coach Jeff Northam in the Whitman Tennis and Wine Camps), we are able to this year use our one in four year NCAA trip to Hawaii before classes start. We are all so excited to get to Oahu, be together in a gorgeous place and kick start our year with matches that will prepare us for the road ahead.
We fly over Monday and were going to have a day off to acclimate, practice, get some fitness going; and then we got the opportunity on Tuesday to scrimmage the #4 team in DII in Hawaii Pacific University, so OF COURSE, we are incredibly pumped for the best training you can have, match play versus a quality opponent. Next up on Wednesday is an even greater challenge in BYU Hawaii, who start the season ranked #2 in DII! We'll get to see the North Shore of the island in Winter and again, our team is always hungry for match play so we can't wait for this one. The level becomes more unknown on Thursday as we play our third straight DII opponent in Chaminade University. We'll then have another day to prepare for the big showdown of top ranked west region DIII teams as we bring our preseason #16 national and #5 west region rankings up against #4, #1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
So, we're in for lots of great tennis and a strong kick off to Spring 2014. I couldn't be more excited to continue guiding the growth of this team, these student athletes are phenomenal players and teammates and Coach C Patt and I are fired up to get this party started this week!
-Coach John
PS Here is the Hawaii match schedule; you can dowload our full updated schedule here.
Tuesday 11am vs Hawaii Pacific University at Central Oahu Regional Park (CORP)
Wednesday 2pm vs BYU Hawaii
Thursday 10am vs Chaminade University at CORP
Saturday 1pm vs Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at CORP
News from Coach John Hein
Summer Tennis Camps and Events:
Team Photo's on Flickr!
Coaching Philosophy
To me, being a college student is about opportunity and growth. As a coach, I consider myself lucky to spend 4 years providing opportunity while nurturing growth. We use common goals, hard work, open communication, respect and accountability as means to building meaningful relationships and improving each player’s skill set on and off the court. This means embodying championship virtues to inspire athletic, academic and personal growth that not only happens while you are at Whitman, but becomes a part of who you are throughout life.