Panthers Tennis Returns Seeking 25th League Title

Last season, the Edgemont Boy's Varsity Tennis team captured their 24th league title in their final regular season match against Keio Academy. This came as a surprise to many, as Keio had defeated Edgemont handily earlier in the season. The title marked a very successful season for first year head coach Mark Romney, who had coached the JV team for many years before taking over for Jeff Menaker last season.

Coach Romney's controversial decision to keep more than 20 kids on a team that has only 11 players in the starting lineup proved to be quite prescient. This gave Coach Romney the ability to rest key starters for some of the easier matches, while allowing other players to gain real-match experience. Because of the system's success last season, Coach Romney did the same with this year's team keeping 22 kids.

The most notable addition to this year's team is sophomore Janoscar Kjellberg. Kjellberg had played in seventh and eighth grades, but was unable to play last year due to a back injury. When asked about the setback, he said, "It was tough, but I put in a lot of time getting back into good tennis shape, and I feel as good if not better than prior to the injury". When asked about his expectations for playing first singles he said, "There are a lot of good players out there, but I feel I will be competitive in all my matches".

The projected second singles player is fellow sophomore Lucas Chan. This will be Chan's second year on the team. He moved around in the lineup a lot as a freshman, from first singles to first doubles.

Some other key players for the club this year will be: second year singles player, Junior Lenny Marlow, fourth year starter, Junior Charlie Miner, and a trio of fifth year senior starters Berber Jin, Krishna Saraf, and Captain Aaditya Jain. Romney. The coach will have some excellent options for 3rd and 4th doubles, from a slew of talent including: Juniors Sarvesh Kaul, Danny Shifren, Steven Conway, Shane Englander, Ahmad Allen, Federico Reyes, Sophomore Liam Klein and others.

The seniors: Jin, Jain, and Saraf are very excited about this year's team, as they feel it is one of the strongest groups Edgemont has had in a while. When asked about the team Berber Jin said: "I think our team has the potential to not only win the league again, but really challenge top teams such as Scarsdale and Mamaroneck. If all our guys are committed and determined, we can really make a splash this year."

The Panthers seem to have all the weapons in place to have a successful season. It will come down to execution- will they be able to win enough matches to capture that 25th league title? Well find out!