All the uncomfortable conversations and processing that happened early in the season seemed to pay off (see previous post for more details), because Ryan had a really fun, rewarding tennis season. His energy, interest, and competitive spirit seemed to increase. He also grew in terms of being vocal and advocating for himself, and we also watched his mental game mature. Burke and I had a blast cheering him on and observing his growth and success. It was an overall excellent way to conclude his time playing high school tennis. 🎾
There were a couple long, hard fought matches. Here's a pic of one such match against Loy Norrix. Ryan and Ben battled, you can see how tired they are. All the other matches ended, and...
... they were the last ones playing. The whole team waited and watched.
Ryan and Ben ended up winning!
The team went out on the court to congratulate and support them.
Later in the season, they had a Senior Celebration for the five graduating team members.
3 Dubs and 4 Dubs in between sets - both strong teams
Ryan & Ben play 4 Doubles
The team really gets along and is mostly positive and supportive.
All of this paid off as Ryan & Ben were seeded #3 and took second place in their Conference Tournament. Wow! Glad Burke could be at the Conference Tournament to share this with Ryan.
In fact, as a team, they won the Regional Tournament, qualifying them for State Finals.
Soon they are off to Division 3 State Finals. The flights are generally not expected to advance super far as there are some high level private school teams from the Detroit area in our division. The Bears will simply be outmatched. They're fighters though, so there are bound to be some battles.
The season will wrap up in the next couple weeks, just when I'm finally getting the hang of tennis strategy and scoring. :) I'm so glad Ryan chose to play tennis in high school. There were ups and downs, but overall it was a growth opportunity with a really rewarding outcome. Isn't that the goal of life? :)
