Weathering storm to another state title

With a fourth-straight state championship hanging in the balance, the Vandebilt tennis teams relied upon an old adage from their coach to keep their winning tradition intact.

All throughout the five-year careers of state championship winning seniors like Jessica Bourque, Matt Spence and Emma Pitre, Vandebilt coach Kevin Ramirez has told his players to “weather the storm” through tough times.

The players will be the first to acknowledge they didn’t always fully understand what the adage meant and sometimes even took it for granted.

Last Wednesday at the 2011 LHSAA Division II Tennis State Championships, it finally sunk in.

Playing in unexpected cold and windy conditions, the Terriers and Lady Terriers overcame adversity and drew strength in their coach’s sayings to win their fourth-straight team state championships.

“Every time I’m down in a match. Every time I lose my focus, it’s the same thing, weathering the storm,” Nicholas Caletri said. “It got to the point to where when I’m down in a match and he’d look at me and he’d say, ‘You already know what I’m about to tell you.’ But at the state meet, with the weather the way it was, we had to take it literally and we had to weather the storm, stay strong and fight to come out on top. Luckily we did.”

Caletri was one of five Vandebilt tennis players to take home state titles at the event, winning the boys’ singles title with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 victory over Neville standout Neel Dhaliwal.

The Terriers and Lady Terriers also took home individual titles in the boys’ doubles and girls’ doubles competitions.

The team of Jacob Richard and Matt Spence won the male-side of the doubles event, scoring a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Caddo Magnet High School’s Donald Hathaway and Jay Meyers.

This marked the second-straight title for the Terriers’ doubles team.

“It’s probably one of the best feelings ever,” Richard said. “It’s just awesome. Truly, it’s an awesome feeling.”

“It’s really one of those feelings that you just sort of can’t describe,” Spence added. “Like the point before it happens, you’re all nervous and everything. With us, Jacob and I have talked about it before when we’re on the court and we’ll look at each other when it gets to that point and we just have to say to ourselves, ‘No, we’ve been here before and we can do this again.’ … But it’s such an amazing feeling to know that you’re one point away or one shot away from being able to say you’re a state champion.”

On the girls’ side, it was all Vandebilt, as the team of Emma Pitre and Sarah Bourgeois outlasted teammates Meghan Philp and Ashley Thomas in a 6-1, 6-2 match.

Beating teammates is never easy in a match where the stakes are so high, but Pitre and Bourgeois said they made it a point to let their teammates know how proud they were of the honor.

“It’s rough playing Meghan and Ashley in the finals,” Pitre said. “But at the same time, it’s always exciting to know that we both got there. We’ve been playing together for so long and it’s like we’re friends and we know it’s going to be a good match, so we know no matter what happens, we’re going to be just as happy for the winner as we are disappointed to be the loser, no matter the outcome.”

Individual titles aside, the Terriers and Lady Terriers say the “big one” for them are the team-wide state titles, the titles they’ve now conquered for four-straight seasons.

The boys won with 14 team points to outpace runners-up Neville and St. Louis.

The girls took home the title with 17 team points, outlasting St. Louis, who had nine.

Each team is awarded one point per match they win at the event.

“It’s really awesome,” Spence said. “It’s a goal that’s not easy to come by, but I think that’s often overlooked. To do this for four years, that’s a big honor and it’s something that we’re really excited about.”

With a group of seniors on the roster, some wonder if five-straight is on the horizon.

The outgoing Terriers believe it could be.

“I think that they’ll be fine next year,” Spence said. “I expect nothing less than a state championship. A five-peat would be amazing for them just to finish what we started.”

“I just want them to work hard and keep our legacy going,” Bourque added, who finished as a runner-up in the singles competition after winning multiple titles in previous years in doubles.

Ramirez would like to see the same, adding anything is possible.

If his team weathers the storm, of course.

“I think that older group has taught the younger group that they’ve got to work hard and that if you do work hard, championships will come,” Ramirez said. “I think that the seniors have kind of set the tone and it’s going to be up to the juniors to step up. But those juniors have been fortunate to have those four seniors who have played at an extremely high level, so they’ve been able to, along with those seniors, be able to win state championships. But now, it’s time for juniors to step up and our future success isn’t going to be just about how they work hard, but also if they’re able to get the sophomores and the younger kids to work hard, as well.”