WOODBURY – Nonnewaug boys tennis had – yet again – an unforgettable season.
The Chiefs took home the Berkshire League championship and secured a second straight Class S runner-up trophy.
Luke Primini, a sophomore, won the BL singles title, but he went into the tournament not expecting to come out of it with a W.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to win the BL title at first,” said Primini, “but I had a lucky draw and got more confident as the tournament went on.”
Nick Sheikh, the boys tennis coach, says that swagger is the key to a successful outcome on the court.
“It’s always something to wanna strive for as an athlete – that should just be, ‘Hey, I wanna win the league,’ or, ‘I wanna win states,’” said Sheikh. “If you don’t believe it at all, it’s never going to happen, so I think our kids built that belief as things went along.”
Kyle Viveros and Landon Parks, both seniors, captured the BL doubles title – something that didn’t surprise Viveros, who played with the confidence that Sheikh wanted.
“I did expect to win the BLs, I knew our team was really good at the top and we all worked well together. I think a lot of people got a lot better from the start to the finish, so credit to Coach Sheikh,” said Viveros. “We had lots of practices, but mostly it was about our mindset. I am very happy with the outcome. It is not easy to do what we did this season, and we had a lot to celebrate.”
The Chiefs set the bar high for themselves to have another successful season after last year’s state runner-up finish and BL title.
“I think that’s become kind of an expectation,” says Sheikh. “We rose to the occasion this past season, which was huge.”
Nonnewaug conquered the first three rounds of states, beating Litchfield in the first round May 24, Shepaug in the quarterfinals May 28, and Westbrook in the semifinals May 29. Stonington, the same team that beat Nonnewaug in the Class S final a year ago, ended the Chiefs’ run in a 6-1 championship match May 30.
“I thought that we were definitely able to repeat what we did last year and get to the state finals again,” Primini said. “We just played a really good team.”
Shiekh made sure the boys knew they were capable and to give it their all.
“As we started to chip away at things,” Sheikh said, “I think they realized that, ‘Oh, Coach isn’t just saying that for the sake of saying that,’ like you know, we can do this.”
