As the tennis season wraps up, Sedro-Woolley High school’s athletes finished strong, showing that dedication and teamwork can turn a tough start into a successful season.

    “Our Boys Tennis team has improved significantly over the season,” said Chris Schaffner, the boys tennis coach. ”Through hard work and more strategic play they’ve become a legitimate competitive threat to all of the teams on our schedule,” 

One of those people that improved this season was Odin Schultz. 

   “Looking at the individual matches I feel like, on a personal basis, we’ve been growing. “ said Schultz, a junior playing his second year of tennis.

 ”We’ve been doing very well. We’ve all improved significantly from the beginning of the season.” 

One person that has shown this the most is Wyatt Melton. 

“The most challenging part is that I am a freshman playing against seniors,” said Melton, who is the youngest and only freshman on the varsity team.

 In one of his biggest matches in his season, Melton played a singles match that went to a third set tie breaker. 

“He fought extremely hard but unfortunately he came up short that day losing in the 10 point, deciding tiebreak,” said Schaffner. 

Odin Schultz said his team mates had his back going through this match. 

 “It’s mostly it during the match, when you’re playing doubles, usually encouraging words and advice, it’s always passed a lot of the time in between sets you get yelled at by your teammates, sometimes usually positive, sometimes less,” said Schultz. 

And of course the constructive criticisms also come with the positive reinforcement, Melton said he’s felt this positive reinforcement.

  “We support each other by going by the courts we are playing and clapping for them if they get a good hit,” said Melton.

To anyone that has played a sport the mental aspect is a big deal especially to see from a coaches point of view. Shaffner says he is most proud of the team’s improvement in the mental aspects of tennis.

” As a whole they have gotten better at managing emotions and stress on court to better be able to deliver their best performance on match days,” said Shaffner.

Along with the mental aspect is the way the team bonds on and off the court. 

 “ It’s great. We all just like each other. We all hang out. It really says something that one of the best parts of the match isn’t even the match itself. It’s the car ride back or we always go to McDonald’s and we just, we just really enjoy each other’s company,” said Shultz

 Of course all three of them in some shape or form have seen the fact that with how the team has improved drastically.

“I have no doubt that in time we will become one of the dominant teams in Northwest Washington tennis,” said Shaffner.