On Thursday, May 2, parents, team members, and faculty gathered to honor the achievements and dedication of senior tennis players Josh Kim and Lukas Clement at their final match of the season. Led by Coach Amy Myers, a fifth grade teacher at West View Elementary, the North Hills Boys Varsity Tennis Team ended the season with a 5-7 record, earning them a spot in the WPIAL playoffs for the first time in eight years.
On Senior Night, the team faced off against Baldwin High School and secured the win. Seniors, captains, and doubles partners Josh Kim and Lukas Clement won 1st doubles, eleventh and ninth graders Conor Greer and Luke Mayer won 2nd doubles, and tenth grader Joey Saad won 3rd singles to take the 3-2 win over Baldwin. In Conor Greer’s first year of playing tennis, he said that his experience on the team has been “pretty great. I love the guys, I love the atmosphere, it is definitely a fun sport that I enjoy playing with my friends.” Senior and captain Josh Kim, an avid tennis player of 12 years, says that his experience has been “A lot of fun. I feel like tennis is sort of a forgotten sport at North Hills, but it’s fun seeing a bunch of athletic people who just want to learn a new sport come out and have fun.”
A large portion of the team is learning this sport for the first time. In fact, five members of the tennis team are learning tennis for the first time this year, and three more are only in the second year. When asked how he helped lead such a young and inexperienced team to playoffs for the first time in eight years, Kim answered, “like I said, it’s a lot of athletic people who don’t necessarily know tennis that well, so I just try and do my best teaching them fundamentals and we see what happens.” The team won their first round of playoffs against the number fifteen seed Penn Traford on Monday, May 29th, but fell short to the reigning WPIAL team champions Gateway High School on Wednesday, May 1st.
Congratulations to the boys and Coach Myers on a great season, and good luck Josh and Lucas on your future endeavors!
