Freshman Finn Taylor was a key contributor to the boys’ varsity tennis team and their undefeated regular season.
What were the highlights of the tennis season?
Beating Redwood for the first time. That was pretty nice. Of course we did lose to them in the MCAL tournament, but we did have a perfect season that made up for it. That made us focused for NCS and MCALS. Another highlight would be winning MCAL individuals, well for me, number one at MCAL. That was fun. I guess the Fresno tournament was fun, getting to know every one. I didn’t really know them before. I got to meet a lot of people. Overall the whole postseason was really cool. There was never a time when it was like ‘Oh man I have to go do this.’
I know you guys didn’t end up winning to Redwood in the team tournament. But you won the individuals?
We had a perfect regular season, which is basically we beat everyone in MCALS. And then we have an MCAL tournament which is a team tournament, which we got number two in that because we lost to Redwood. It is a little bit my fault because I got [an] appendicitis two weeks before so I was playing against a placeholder so I wasn’t really supposed to win. But I ended up becoming the deciding match kind of in a way…And then we did individuals which is players from the team get to play as individuals in the MCAL tournament and I played number one doubles with Jackson Gathard. We won number one individuals and number one doubles. We went to NCS, played the number one seed and lost but it was fun.
How did you do in NCS?
In [the] NCS team [tournament]…we got to the quarterfinals where we lost to Foothill [after] we beat Berkeley in the first round…We could have beaten Foothill but we weren’t focused enough.
When did you start playing tennis?
I started playing tennis for fun when I was eight, then I quit when I was ten and then I went back into the sport when I twelve. In about 7th grade when I was 13 I started playing seriously every day. And it kind of went up from there and I just got better from there.
What are some specific highlights or some specific memories from this season or tennis in general that reminded you of your passion for the game?
Getting better, improving as something is rewarding in itself. Having a little bit of success to hang onto that is kind of motivation. To win more, to get better, that is why a lot of people play sports, why they want to keep getting better. From this season, some specific highlights is the Fresno tournament was really fun. I didn’t know everyone before so just getting to know them, they all turned out to be awesome people?
What was the Fresno tournament that you competed in?
We all stayed in hotel together. Not the whole team, this year we had a lot of people, almost 30 people. We had a taxi squad that didn’t play in the matches but got to go to practice on Fridays. The top 13 played in the Fresno tournament…But that was really fun. It was a blast.
Do you do any other leagues off season or do you just practice alone?
I was a part of Burgos, I am still part of it. I had my first team experience because I did a summer league and has some success with that and that was a good training program that I was apart of in eighth grade. I am still a part of it I just haven’t been going recently since tam season started. I still need to go.
What are your plans to continue with tennis?
Most likely play next season. It’s not 100 percent. I think I am going to unless I have a really astounding reason not to. I’ll probably want to, I probably will… And other than that I am going to keep playing tennis all through high school. Practice every day, I still need to do more tournaments.