The popular song by Lorde, “Tennis Court” is literal for many students at Potomac Falls. On Feb.26, many students found themselves racing to designated locations for the spring sport that they planned on joining, in some cases, that sport was tennis.  This year, boys varsity tennis found that they had a new coach for the new season, math teacher Mr. Nick Puszert.

 Puszert seemed more than ready to take on this new challenge.

 “I think I’ll really enjoy it.  It’s going to be a learning experience.  I’m looking forward to a good season,” said Puszert.

   A new coach is not the only obstacle players will have to deal with.  Returning players will also have to cope with new players, some of which may be freshmen.  Sophomore Jackson Blodgett, a returning player, is one of the many who are returning a bit apprehensive due to the graduation of last year’s seniors.

 “A big bulk of the team left, and there are only six returning members,” said Blodgett.

 Junior Adam Balick, however, is looking forward to seeing how the incoming freshman do on the team, but agrees with Blodgett in that having more new players than veteran players might impact the team negatively.

 “ It adds youth to the team.  We have pieces that will hopefully help us in the future.  There’s kind of a void that’s left behind [from seniors who have graduated], and it’s harder to fill.  It might hurt us,” said Balick.

   During the tryouts on Feb. 26, Puszert sat through three days of tryouts with different rubrics based on different techniques he was looking for in a good player, such as the forehand, backhand, and serve.  Each player would get 10 to 15 balls for each technique, and Puszert would then give each player a score out of five.

 Each player anticipates the season differently.  Balick hopes to improve as a player, while Blodgett hopes to get a varsity letter as well as make the “Top Six.”  The top six players are decided at the end of the season by Puszert.

 “We have an intersquad tournament, and each player will play each other and based on their win-loss record.  They will be ranked so the person with the most wins will be number one, and then it’ll just go down the line,” said Puszert.

 Puszert is not exempt from anticipating anything from the new tennis season.  He is looking forward to the snow from the recent “polar vortex” melting, so the players can finally play and compete.  He knows there will be a few butterflies with the first match in himself as well as the players, but he intends to ease the nerves in the players as their coach.

 It will most likely be the freshmen or new players who have butterflies with the first couple of matches, as they are the underdogs of the tennis team.  Puszert is well aware of this and encourages new players to try as hard as they can in the sport.

 “I always look for people who are hustling.  If they’re willing to try and they have a little bit of athletic ability I can help because if they don’t have athletic ability it’ll be harder to teach,” said Puszert.

 Blodgett agrees with Puszert, but also mentions that the season should be stress-free to the freshmen in particular.

 “Just have fun and enjoy it because you only have one freshman year, and you don’t have anything to look back on so you have a clean slate.  You can just have fun and not have any pressure,” said Blodgett.

 All students will be able to enjoy the first matches of the season as they will be home matches, and the one to look forward to is the very first game.  The game is on March 18, and it will be against Dominion.  The following game on March 19 will be played at home against Heritage.  The last match in March is an away game at Dominion.