The 29/1
Official Podcast of the West Ottawa High School Athletic Program. 29 Sports, One Team. The show that brings you into the lives of student athletes, coaches and other faces in the Panther Sports Community. Bringing you the stories you might otherwise never hear. Join Rodney Vellinga and Athletic Director Bill Kennedy as they dive in with you to get to know each other a little bit better.
The 29/1
Injury, Innovation and a Conference Title: with Brian Metz, Trevyn Bethke and Varsity Boys Tennis
Come along and join us for an encouraging conversation with Boys Varsity Tennis Coach Brian Metz and #2 Singles Player Trevyn Bethke, who share the nuances of a challenging 2024 fall season, and a surprise accomplishment despite overwhelming odds.
We learn about a team with talented players at every level, and a group of friends who enjoy each day together.
We take a deep dive into Trevyn's resilience as he navigates the challenges of an unexpected shoulder injury. Discover how an innovative adoption of an underhand serve became a surprising asset, demonstrating his adaptability and commitment to the team. With guidance and support from his dad Randy Bethke, coaches, and Eric Hamilton, Trevyn’s journey through injury and recovery underscores the spirit of perseverance and support that fuels the Panthers. This episode offers a heartfelt tribute to the determination and collective energy that propels the West Ottawa Boys Varsity Tennis team to achieve greatness and another OK Red Conference Championship.
This episode was recorded on October 6, 2024
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
I was the last match on and so all the schools were around watching the match. I had no idea, but after the match was done the guys just flooded me and pushed me around and everything.
Speaker 2:Right under that shoulder. Yeah, oh, my heart sank. You have no idea. I didn't like it at all. Keep going, trevor. But they were saying that we won.
Speaker 3:That was the match that won it for us, hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West Ottawa High School Athletic Program and you're listening to the 29.1 Podcast 29 sports, one team, the show that brings you into the lives of student-athletes, coaches and other faces in the Panther sports community, bringing you the stories you might otherwise never hear. Join myself and Athletic Director Bill Kennedy as we dive in with you to get to know each other a little bit better.
Speaker 4:You can't ever be surprised if you're expecting something, but when you're not expecting it, that's when it gets good.
Speaker 5:Today we're joined by Coach Brian Metz and Junior Trevin Bethke, who are coming off a win at the OK Red Championships this weekend the fourth conference title in a row for the Panthers and Trevin's first flight championship.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was a great day yesterday at granville.
Speaker 5:A lot had happened for this to go our way, and it did coach brian metz and junior trevin bethke coming up next on the 29 one podcast.
Speaker 4:Let's get it well, hey, everybody, welcome back to the 29.1 podcast. I'm your host, rodney Vilenka. I'm here with Panthers Athletic Director, bill Kennedy, and we have two members of the most recent conference championship team here at West Ottawa sitting down with us today. Who is it?
Speaker 1:I'm Trevin Bethke and I'm Head Coach Brian Metz.
Speaker 4:Two people who had a very good yesterday, to say the least, a really good yesterday, yeah, so at conference at Granville you guys took a share of the conference championship with Rockford, which we'll get into a little bit. But just in general, guys, welcome to the show. It's great to have you on. Appreciate it. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, it's going to be really cool.
Speaker 5:Let's get to know you guys a little bit.
Speaker 4:A lot of people know you well, but some don't. Brian, you're a teacher at Lakewood Elementary. How long have you been teaching here at West Ottawa?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm in year 12. I'm at Lakewood and Waukesha Elementary. A little gray in the beard now I'm getting older. I started Not at a few years and then I was at a Woodside elementary for a couple and this is year seven at Waka zoo in Lakewood. Uh, elementary PE loving it. It's great, Right, and you're married and you have a daughter. Right, I do Yep. Uh, my daughter, uh, Amelia, is three and a half. Uh comes to a lot of the tennis stuff, which is great. Uh, wife and I got married in 2017. So what is that year seven?
Speaker 4:Yeah, right, yeah. Seven Sure Sounds right, yeah, yeah. You're not going to get in trouble with us for getting your anniversary wrong.
Speaker 2:She's going to listen. You're okay, all right.
Speaker 4:Uh, after the those edits it came out real nice. You got it right Perfectly. Um, let's also do. You've also been the varsity boys tennis coach here. How long have you been doing that?
Speaker 2:This is year seven as the boys head coach. Before that I was the JV coach and I also coached the middle school level a little bit. Overall, this is year 10 that I've been coaching for West Ottawa.
Speaker 4:Wow, it's been. You've been here quite a while.
Speaker 5:Yeah, coach started his varsity career the same year that I came in as the athletic director. So when I first met him he's like hi, I'm Brian Metz, I'm your varsity tennis coach. This is my first year. Did he flex on you? No, I think he was a little bit intimidated when he walked into my office the first time, for sure.
Speaker 2:Because Bill didn't hire me.
Speaker 4:Our previous athletic director did so.
Speaker 2:he had no idea what he was getting All right, so that first meeting.
Speaker 4:If it goes awkward, you could lose your job. Things can you know.
Speaker 5:You could lose your job, yeah, but I mean, ultimately he's the steward of one of our best programs. Brian, you're always talking about the banner in the gym. It's my favorite thing in that gym. We're getting close. We're going to have to order another one soon because we have accumulated so many conference titles in boys tennis that we're going to run out of room on the conference title banner.
Speaker 2:One of my goals as a head coach is to be the first program to hang a second banner. Well, you're well on your way.
Speaker 4:We're close. How many championships do you have and can you break them down from memory? And 30 seconds is all you got Go.
Speaker 2:We've got four conference titles. We've won three out of the last four regionals. We've won in 2021, 22, 23, and 24 for the conference and the regional was 21. We missed in 22. We took second place 23 and 24.
Speaker 4:That's a coach who knows his stuff. Everybody. That was pretty impressive. I think we probably barely got past 20 seconds there. Trevin, so nice to have you here today. You're a junior and you've played varsity tennis all three years. Right, that's correct. What spots did you play when you got started? What did you play when you were a freshman sophomore that type of thing my freshman year.
Speaker 1:I played three singles, so you played singles right away pretty much.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, you are a.
Speaker 1:Bethke, we'll get to that in a minute. Sophomore year.
Speaker 4:Last year, sophomore year, last year I played two um and now this year I'm playing two singles as well. Right, and you, you know, you've always, always moved up and done that really well. You've come from a long line of bethke family tennis players.
Speaker 1:Uh, who's all played from your family yeah, so I have, I have four siblings, and they've all played tennis, so taylor he's 27. He played tennis in college too, for Michigan Tech Did he really Okay. Travis. He's 24, I think now, and he played tennis for West Ottawa. He played one singles and he didn't play in college, but he didn't want to, right If you're playing one singles at West Ottawa. I'm sure you could? Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2:They were both very good.
Speaker 1:Right, sure you could. Yeah, he was sure. Yeah, they were both very good, right? He just didn't end up playing in college. Um, tylia, she played varsity tennis for your sister, my sister, yep, and then shred and played varsity tennis all four years um, I think he got up to two singles. Okay, he played a little club at western michigan tennis, so he's he's still sticking with it a little bit and you have an uncle that plays too right, don't you?
Speaker 4:uh, you've you kind of sticking with it a little bit. And you have an uncle that plays too right, don't you? Yes?
Speaker 1:You kind of learned from him a little bit. My uncle, yeah, he played at Purdue, so that's a pretty good school to play at, and we play a lot.
Speaker 2:That's a good person to hit with Trev.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a very good person to play with.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you get a lot of knowledge from somebody that age too right.
Speaker 1:He has a lot. Actually, whenever he visits, we do go out and play matches and they're pretty intense, I'd say Cause. I mean, if I beat him then I can say I'm better, I've always been better than him.
Speaker 4:So and you are the baby in the family. We all know how sports goes with babies in the family, right, you get beat up on. I did Something in tennis, tell us about that.
Speaker 1:I mean when I was younger, obviously I would get beat up on, but I feel like that made me better as a player.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, for sure Always does.
Speaker 5:That's why Sadie Vellenga is going to be a superstar.
Speaker 4:It's funny my kids get mentioned on this podcast and it feels like it's a lot of pressure now. But yeah, hopefully she'll be a nice player. Now I was talking to your dad yesterday and I'm like, hey, you know how to try and learn how to play and all that stuff and we learned a few different things, but one of the biggest training grounds for you guys is your family driveway. That's right. Yeah, go into detail about that. Like, when you start doing that, what's the setup? Like oh gosh.
Speaker 1:So we have like a couple of cars in our driveway so we're playing tennis, swinging the racket around the cars and everything. Everybody's done this, but yeah, pretty much everybody's done it.
Speaker 4:How many tennis balls do you have in your eavesdrop? That's a side question, but keep going. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:So as long as I can remember, I've been playing tennis with either my brothers or my dad in the driveway. And that's pretty much where I learned everything.
Speaker 2:Right, you guys got the pop-up net. Right, you guys would put that up when you guys hit it up a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did. I think it broke, but we did have one.
Speaker 4:So you were way ahead of that pickleball curve right, I mean back in the day you were doing tennis. Obviously Is your driveway slanted. Is it flat? What's that?
Speaker 1:like yeah, it's got a little curve to it so it's not like a flat surface. Good for playing tennis. Right, got those little family tricks, you got to pull off, yeah.
Speaker 2:One side's definitely better than the other.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Take sprained their ankle. You're also a big Tigers and Lions fan. Life's pretty good right now. I know Bill's life is not so good. He's an Orioles fan.
Speaker 5:No, it did not.
Speaker 4:Bill, how are you doing today?
Speaker 5:I'm fine today because we've got a big Ravens game at one o'clock against the Bengals, so morale is high.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a couple days ago, when the Orioles got eliminated, tigers took him out. I was depressed. Yeah, you're a little down. I hadn't seen that too much before. Beard got a little more gray, yeah, but the Lions and Tigers you're big fans of those guys, right? Yes, just how do we think the Tigers are going to do?
Speaker 1:They lost what 7 they did, I think, the next game that they play Terry Skubal's pitching. Yes, I think they have a very good shot at winning that one. I mean that guy is lights out, he is. He'll win the Cy Young Yep Lions. They have a bye this week. It's bye week. Yep, they had a very good last game. Great last game versus the Seahawks on Monday Night. Football Offense came alive, so that was great to see Goff gets that touchdown pass Didn't have a miss.
Speaker 4:That was a good night Perfect game. Yeah, it was pretty fun right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you got a fantasy squad. I do have a fantasy squad, yes, how's it going? Not great. I mean, I drafted Tyreek Hill and Cooper. Cup Tua his quarterback got injured. Cup Tua his quarterback got injured and so he's not been getting the ball at all.
Speaker 4:Cooper Cup got injured the first week after dropping 32 fantasy points. Yeah, which is that great Cooper Cup number from a couple years ago.
Speaker 1:Right, he would always have big numbers, keep going yeah, and so my running backs aren't very strong. I have Travis Etienne and Zach Moss.
Speaker 5:Well, I have both of them in my starting lineup today, really yeah, and Zach Moss, I have both of them in my starting lineup today.
Speaker 4:Really. Yeah, I also have Chuba Hubbard. Is it Chuba? I always liked saying Chuba, but it's Chuba. Huh, I think it's Chuba. Is it Chuba? It is Chuba.
Speaker 1:But quarterback CJ Stroud, so he's been decent but not great.
Speaker 2:Did you boys do a fancy draft for the team this year? I can't remember we. Did you boys do a fancy draft for the team this year? I can't remember. We actually didn't. Okay, every in the past on some of our overnight trips on the way and they all got their phones and were in different vans.
Speaker 2:The boys do a fancy draft and it always adds a unique dynamic to practices and when, on Mondays, when we talk about how we did over the weekend with their fantasy teams. But apparently you guys can squeeze that in this year. No, we didn't. Oh well, we didn't have a trip. Our trip was September. Yeah, that's right. So that's why you guys probably didn't do it.
Speaker 1:You guys normally do it when we we did make a league, we just never got to draft.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it happens. You have these great plans to have these great drafts.
Speaker 5:That would be a teams you're starting to get into some well, their teams aren't very good. That's tough. Yeah, that's the one thing about in fantasy draft. You're the number one overall pick. That was me blessing and a curse, because it was, you know, number one.
Speaker 4:We're gonna see you what 20, pick 20 or maybe pick 16, depending on the size of your league especially this year.
Speaker 1:If you got number one, you'd draft mcafree that's what I did he's out yeah that's what I did.
Speaker 5:I had the number one season, maybe drafted cmc way to play it safe and smart um. But you know, because I'm a very adept at drafting, my team is holding the reins and solid second place right now.
Speaker 4:I I'm really good at the late rounds okay, yeah, there's a lot of hidden talent back there. Let's talk about this team, though. Let's head back to this team. Brian, let let's go through the players on the teams. Let's do one through four singles and then one through five doubles. Who was on those teams this year? Sure and Trevin. If he forgets, you can jump in.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, there's a lot of them. So Sebastian Dozman's playing one, trevin Bethke is our fourth singles player, and then, headlining the doubles lineup, we've got Cody Skerman and Braden Goodwin at one, landon Meyer and Teddy Major at two, lincoln Taylor and Brylon McConnell at three, harper Van Nord at four with Lucas Woodwick, and then five doubles. Rounding out the team is Hugh Irvine and Hudson Valengo.
Speaker 4:What's it been like for you this year hanging out with this group of guys?
Speaker 1:This team is pretty special, oh is it really yeah? Because we're all just friends on a team.
Speaker 2:And so there's really no like. It helps that we only graduated two last year. So most of these players have played together for years and, like Trev said, they're all really good friends. Like they hang out outside of the season, they do stuff after practice together. They go to eat almost every single day after practice. Oh, do you really?
Speaker 1:What spots do you hit up? Trevin, wingstop, chipotle mostly those are the good go-tos, huh.
Speaker 4:Yeah, with this group of guys who won the conference titles yesterday, because there's individual ones too, right? Yep.
Speaker 2:So we had a great day yesterday. Um, we ended up winning conference titles at two singles, three singles, four singles uh and five doubles, which really solidified uh our place, uh, in the tournament.
Speaker 4:Without any of those matches, we wouldn't have had the day we tried and it really matters, right, like all the different levels, because one singles wins. Well, four doubles is just important.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, they're all worth the same points in the finals.
Speaker 2:So well, and tennis is a is a weird sport. It's an individual sport, right. But and my players know this that the team's the thing that matters the most. We can't do this by ourselves. It takes every one of us doing our job, and doing it to the best of our ability, to have good days and to have big events. And if any of us drop the ball, it's just not possible, especially in the OK Red. It's just so competitive and the boys really came through yesterday.
Speaker 5:And part of that kind of team structure and doing it all together is your coaching staff. I would put our tennis coaching staff on both the boys and the girls side up against anybody in the state of Michigan. Talk to us a little bit about your assistant coaches and kind of those folks that are really instrumental in helping out. Trev you at the fence in between matches. Who's coming to talk to you?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, they're. They are very good like mental coaches, because a lot of times in tennis you know the mental side of it it's hard to like stay positive and stay focused and they do a really good job of getting our minds right for the match. Um, so they're just really good and they have a lot of knowledge.
Speaker 5:Do you have coaches that you interact with more? I know from time to time Coach Metz. You guys kind of assign different coaches to work with individuals.
Speaker 2:It just kind of depends on the day and how the players are playing. We all have different relationships. We all get along really well, but sometimes I need to be the one that pulls Trev to the fence and sometimes it's got to be Coach Shop. We've got a wealth of knowledge, but sometimes I need to be the one that pulls Trev to the fence and sometimes it's gotta be coach shop. You know, we've got a wealth of knowledge.
Speaker 2:You know Lee shop, my assistant my full-time assistant, you know has been with me for four years. Both of sons played for me before that. So I've known him for 10 years. I trust him more than I trust almost anybody else in my life. You know Dave Borski, who is another assistant, has been with us for a couple years now. He was a high-level college player. You know both his girls went to West Ottawa. Now they've graduated, so he volunteers his time to work with us.
Speaker 2:And then obviously, having Coach Schwallier one of the best coaches in the state as a part-time assistant, we get a lot of benefit from that as well. But you know, it just really depends on the day and what the boys need. A lot of benefit from that as well, but you know it is really depends on the day and what the boys need. Coach shop does a very good job of kind of getting them back to neutral, uh, where I can sometimes rev them up a little bit, uh, if they need it. You know the the biggest thing for us is just making sure that we play one point at a time. We stress that up and down the lineup to everybody you play a point, you move on Uh, we can't go back and fix it If we did something wrong, we can only look ahead, and we always try to make those little improvements throughout the course of a match or a day, to try to play our best tennis when it matters most.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I always enjoy being on the big matches. There's a text thread that connects all the coaches. Because we're at multiple locations, I always really appreciate being on those because I get a little bit of the insight, being on those, because I get a little bit of the insight. So I actually know I might not be on site but I know whatever that coach is going to tell the player at the fence during the next change, like I'm in the loop as far as that goes.
Speaker 2:Well, we kind of want to make sure that they're getting a consistent message and different players need different things. You know, like for Trev, for example. He's an incredibly talented player, very, very skillful at the game of tennis. His ground strokes, your volleys, you know they're very technically sound. So a lot of it for him is making sure that he just plays his game and doesn't let his opponent dictate too much, and just reminding him to be patient. You know, if he can wear his opponents down, we're in a really good spot. Just because he's so technically sound, people don't like playing against him because he never misses and when you're playing against a wall it can be very frustrating and Trev does a great job of frustrating people. He just has to be patient. Sometimes he'd be reminded to be patient.
Speaker 4:Trev and I think the coaching probably really came into play with that East Kentwood at home. Was it a week or two ago when they had that surprise player at number two?
Speaker 1:Can you tell us about?
Speaker 4:that a little bit.
Speaker 1:So I thought I was going to play the two singles that they had last year and I beat that kid pretty easily, so you know I wasn't thinking much of it. East kentwood brought in a foreign exchange student from venezuela and that surprised me a little bit and I ended up losing.
Speaker 2:so tight match, though I mean it was yeah very tight match and you both were playing great tennis the player from east kentwood's good like he's legit actually uh, moved into the States with his family, so he's going to be here a while and we're going to see him again. And when they got off the bus we were kind of watching them warm up and it didn't look like it was supposed to look, so we kind of had to figure that out, yeah that's an example, Like you're saying, that's an example of one of those times where mentally going in this is a massive surprise and you've got like turn your mental around pretty fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because if I know I'm playing someone good throughout the day, like my mental state is different, right, and so that just didn't happen that day. Yeah, and it was a good match.
Speaker 4:Well, let's get to your injury. I entitled this section it's called trevin and the injury so. But to be honest with you, this this year it almost didn't happen for you. Just before I talked to your dad last night, just before Trials this summer, you were playing in a match at DeWitt Tennis Center with a top player from Ludington, and what happened?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we were playing in a tight match and it was on my serve, so I tried to hit a serve out wide, which is basically just put a ton of spin on it, and I served up the ball and basically my shoulder just went with my arm or my racket and it, like it like came out of socket and then I like finished the stroke with my arm and there was like crunching, oh boy, in my shoulder.
Speaker 1:It's not ideal If your shoulder crunches, no, and so immediately something was wrong. I mean, it wasn't like out of place, like I was still moving it around, but Was the match done at that?
Speaker 4:point, or did you?
Speaker 1:keep playing we? No, I immediately stopped. Yeah, it was done, it was done, okay, okay. So it was just not right. I couldn't move it really.
Speaker 2:Well, and this was the Friday before tryouts. So, like Friday, saturday, sunday tryouts are Monday. So this is like three days before the season. Trev had a fantastic off season and, at his full potential, being able to play completely normal, he was going to be right in the mix to play one singles. And we were kind of thinking about that and saying, yeah, we're going to, we're going to have a really solid singles lineup with Trev at one or two, sebastian at one or two, and then, you know, drew and Luke at three and four, some combination. And then I get a phone call Friday afternoon saying Trev's not great and that was not something we were anticipating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were actually in Cincinnati watching the Cincinnati Open tennis, oh you went, so yeah, I always wanted to go to that one.
Speaker 1:I had to go with a sling on because we couldn't go to like urgent care or anything because we had to leave. Like I was playing at DeWitt and then right after that I was going to leave. I was playing at DeWitt and then right after that I was going to leave. So we couldn't do anything at the time. So we bought a sling and so my dad didn't even tell Coach Metz for a couple days actually why. What's the point? I think it was like one day or so before trials yeah, well, I knew.
Speaker 2:DeWitt got a hold of me and told me that something happened. Yeah, Adam told me and then I just DeWitt got ahold of me and told me that something happened. Yeah, adam told me Okay, and then I just waited patiently to hear from you, like maybe you're going to sleep on it, it was going to feel better, maybe it was nothing to worry about. So I was just waiting to hear from you or your dad.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny that you say sleep on it, because I couldn't sleep on it. It actually felt a lot worse the second day.
Speaker 5:What was that? Like that kind of as the you're, you know you get injured and you've got tryouts that are starting on monday. How long did it take before you kind of figured out, like what you were going to be able to do this season or if you were going to be able to play at all?
Speaker 1:yeah. So coming out of that injury, I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to play because just the way my arm was, the way it was moving, I was honestly didn't think I was going to be able to play Because just the way my arm was, the way it was moving, I didn't think there was a chance. But after coming home from Cincinnati we went to the doctor. We got x-rays. All the x-rays were fine, so they thought it was just a slapped hair or whatever in the labrum. And so I got my MRI and sure enough, there was like hair or whatever in the labrum. And so I got my MRI and sure enough, there was like two spots where there were slapped hairs. And so they recommended either like surgery or rehab.
Speaker 1:And we decided, well, surgery would end the season but I would most likely be ready in time for baseball, but throughout the winter and everything I wouldn't be able to train. We wanted to rehab. That's what we did. We went to Eric Hamilton. The first day I went there he made me move my arm a little bit in places I didn't think were possible. He wanted me to serve, do my serve motion. At that point my arm was just completely still.
Speaker 5:I had a little PTSDd.
Speaker 1:I didn't really I didn't really like move it that much and so I looked at him like he was crazy. But we did some pt with some little stuff I was able to. I was able to do it and I was really surprised like I was able to do some exercises. I feel like I right your arm. You never would have put it there yourself. No, like I didn't think that was even possible. Doing the stuff we did the first day and coming out of that first session of PT, I was feeling great.
Speaker 5:That's awesome. As somebody that has had four surgeries on my right shoulder, I can identify with hearing you've got a slap tear. I've had those good times.
Speaker 4:You've had four surgeries, Four surgeries yep, well, let's not go down that path with Trevin.
Speaker 5:We're going to take the little rehab route.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, and it's a big decision to make. You didn't make it lightly. But what I've learned, too, is your dad really came alongside you and you guys kind of worked together to forge a path forward, right.
Speaker 1:You guys had some plans. It was a big team effort between my coaches, my dad, Eric Hamilton when is Eric Hamilton at? He's out of a CrossFit gym, I think rehab for performance. I think it is Okay, all right. We'll give a shout out to him for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. So talking with Trevin's dad, you know, looking at our season, going the rehab route, obviously the goal is for Trevin to play and we decided that we needed him to play in the conference portion of the season. So he was hitting, you know, the big limiting factor became his serve. And the serve is an important part of tennis because as a singles player you have to do it half the time and if Trevin can't serve, that's a problem. So we decided that he was going to serve underhand and see what we could do, see what we could get out of him. So for that first month Trev really didn't play at all. He hit in, he worked on his underhand serve and probably three weeks in he probably played his first match against Holland.
Speaker 2:No no, who'd you play? Jenison Played Jenison first. Yep, okay. And you won that match, correct? Yes, yep. And after that match we started feeling pretty good and saying, okay, let's see what Trev can tolerate. And over the next few weeks we got him more and more experience, practice, more matches under his belt and by the time we got to the conference portion of the season, he had solidified himself as our two singles player through multiple challenge matches and we decided to run with it and Trav was going to play two singles, no matter what serve and underhand.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you've made some adjustments with some other shots, so the underhand serve is really unique to see at two singles. So if you show up to one of these matches, you know whether you're working your way through the doubles and you're walking around and we I'll call it the big courts. Okay, so you get to one and two.
Speaker 2:Well, my favorite part of that is when, when Trev's warming up, he doesn't even serve, like when they. When they get to the part of the warmup and his opponent starts serving Trev, just looks at him and says I'm good, I don't need to serve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't want to show him it.
Speaker 4:So, no, no need to walk us through a little bit about putting together an underhand serve, but then talk about some of the other shots you had to kind of leave behind because they presented maybe a little too much risk yeah, so the underhand serve it.
Speaker 1:It has come a long way and I give thanks to adam at adam ford, adam ford at hope. He came to a practice and he helped me with it. Oh, that's nice of him, um, but starting out I.
Speaker 1:The problem with it was I couldn't get it in, but it seems easy but it got it got a lot better and I was able to compete with it, but also the other shots I couldn't do was going into the net overheads, which was a big part of my game really. I had to just tap it, I couldn't—nothing overhead and my volleys were just a little bit hesitant because of the slot in my arm. So you know it was— they've gotten a lot better, but it was very hard for me to stop myself.
Speaker 4:What specifically did Adam work on you with to make it a little bit better, make it something that at least you weren't going to get pounded on every time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he gave me some pointers and he gave me some other options I could do. So there's a top spin serve and then an underhand serve like an under spin serve. Oh nice, that would mess with the opponent a little bit.
Speaker 2:but yeah, really, he just gave me some pointers and yeah just even building some confidence in it, saying that, yeah, this will work right, it's important. You know, tennis is such a mental game. You know, feeling good about what you're doing, uh is so huge. And when, when trev was starting this journey, he didn't feel great about it and we just had to get in matches and see what opponents would do and really we haven't had anyone that's really attacked it and made it into a weakness. You know, it's always a pretty neutral ball and once Trev gets into a neutral rally, anything goes. He's got just as good a chance to win that point as anybody else, and that's where we try to get him, and he's done a very good job of capitalizing on those opportunities and using what he has and still showcasing the real talent that he has as a player.
Speaker 4:It wasn't necessarily there. So mentally, your dad shared with me. You've always been a competitive player, going in and playing competitive role, but at the beginning it was like I didn't need to find a way to be part of this team. Can you speak to going? Hey, I need to now be part of this team. I need to fill this role at this spot and just talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if I didn't play, that would mean everyone would like move up in the lineup, and so I needed to be in a position where the lineup would be the same and I could play in a spot where I had a chance to win at, so I wouldn't mess with the team too much. That's what I needed to do.
Speaker 4:That's a big thing, isn't it? Coach?
Speaker 2:Well, and it was. It speaks to Trev's character. You know he wanted to do what was best for the team and from the very beginning, I told him that the best thing for the team is that he was on the team.
Speaker 2:You know, because we were trying to figure out whether it was rehab or surgery and you know I was going to respect whatever decision they made as a family. You know that's that's up to them and I'd support him and I know he's a multi-sport athlete so he's got other considerations. I wanted them to do what was best for them and they decided on the rehab. I said cool, then we're going to try to get you in the lineup. We want you to play and he's still good enough to be our second singles player serving underhand. That's very difficult to do with, as competitive as our lineup is, and we were very fortunate to still have him able to play for us and to compete at the level that he did. We were very fortunate to still have him able to play for us and to compete at the level that he did.
Speaker 5:And not only good enough to be our second singles player, but good enough to win the okay Red at that flight. Correct, it was huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, we didn't know. We didn't know how he was going to stack up serving underhand and once we got into our conference matches he battled. And you know we had some long matches, we had some three setters against really good opponents and really good schools, and Trev buckled down and did his job and we went into the conference tournament as a two seed and he ended up outplaying his seed and being a flight champion at two singles.
Speaker 5:Coach, when a player goes down, especially kind of top of the singles lineup, there's a lot of decision making that has to go into. Ok, what are we going to do in the meantime to make sure that when we get to the end of the season we have matches for seating purposes conference, regional, that sort of thing? Talk to us a little bit about the decision process in bringing up Miles Wilkinson to step in at two singles and feel things out there early in the season.
Speaker 2:Well, the most important thing is that your your lineup is justifiable. So you got to have a lineup that, um, you know you've gone through your challenge matches and everybody's in the right spot. Once we knew that Trev was going to be two, uh, cause he played Sebastian, sebastian beat him. You know we didn't have Trev play every match, so I was very fortunate. Um, you know, our JV is a very strong squad and we took our best JV player, miles Wilkinson, to kind of step in and for some of those matches and give Trev's arm a break, because I didn't want him playing two and three matches in a day early on.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and what's that? What's that do? I guess moving forward, even for a player like Miles to have some of that experience at the varsity level, now right, and then he goes back down and plays JV. It probably slows matches down considerably.
Speaker 2:It does. Yeah, he's definitely playing different opponents. He was playing every school's second best player and he did win a match. He did. He actually won a couple matches. Oh, he won two, he did and having him able to step in for Trev was huge for us. He fit in with the team very well and I'm expecting big things from Miles next year as a senior. I think he's going to be, hopefully, right in our varsity lineup and I'm excited to see him play for the full year, wherever he ends up.
Speaker 4:Trevon, what's really cool about sports? Sometimes and when I get into my dad advice moments that all dads do when we talk sports, there's the yeah, this is a disadvantage, but also when, when you have disadvantages, also there's an advantage. Your ground strokes this season have been phenomenal. As a tennis fan and watching you hit, Can you talk to me like your backhand is so technically sound and powerful? How fun is it to hit that shot? What's that like for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, coming out of the injury, the only shot I could really hit was my backhand a lot because obviously my right arm. So I did hit a lot of backhands and you know it. Just it stuck with me and I'm just happy that I'm able to hit those shots again.
Speaker 2:I joke around with Trev and tell him he's a surgeon. He slices up the court, he can put that ball wherever he wants. One of our main points with his game is just moving people around and making them uncomfortable. If you're going to play Trev, you're going to run a whole bunch and he's very good at putting that ball where the opponent isn't or where the opponent doesn't want to be, and he's a literal surgeon out there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it's really tough as a if. If someone's your opponent, you are trying to go to their weakness, right, you're going to do that as a coach. Oh, go to his back, don't go to his backhand. You're really good at that high backhand. To that, that high bounce backhand, which is one of the harder ones to hit you. Pound that, bro yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're talking about yourself here, I get it.
Speaker 4:But it's good. It's just so much fun to watch, thank you thank you so okay we go.
Speaker 5:We go through this junior season with an injury right, and obviously we're going to get really healthy in the off season. We're going to come back as a senior. What do you think the impact is going to be? Playing the way you've been forced to this year as we move into next year as a senior coming back, and now maybe you have that overhand serve, but there's other parts of your game that have taken steps forward. I mean, you're going to be. You're going to be something to deal with next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean I can't serve, so my ground strokes have gotten a lot better, everything in that category. I just need to get my serve back, and hopefully I will, and once that happens, then we'll see what. We'll see what the future brings, but for for you this year.
Speaker 4:What have been some of the more rewarding matches that you've played? Where you've you've gone from early in the year to saying, hey, I just want to be on the team and I want to fill a role, cause at that point you're like, well, I don't know if I can't compete to. All of a sudden you're competing and like, okay, driving Beth is a little bit back right now. I might not have this, I might not have that, but look out, cause I'm coming at you. What are a couple of matches that stand out to you where, all of a sudden, those competitive juices really started flowing again?
Speaker 1:It's the third set, the third set matches that I've played this year. So I've played a third set against Hudsonville and Grand Haven and I think another one I can't remember. But you know, it's just those third sets that Everybody else is done almost. There is just two tired guys on the court who can outlast the other one who can? Hit one more ball than the other guy, and you know, that's what I think about.
Speaker 2:That's where he thrives too. Correct me if I'm wrong, Trev, you dropped the first sets in both those matches, right?
Speaker 1:I think so yeah.
Speaker 2:We had to battle back and get to a third set. You had to figure it out very quickly in that second set and settle down and be like, okay, we got to battle to get to a opportunity for us to win this match. You know, if we don't figure it out, we're going to be done here pretty quick. And I think you do a really good job of rebounding and working yourself back in when things haven't gone your way early and just staying patient and staying composed.
Speaker 5:Coach, maybe talk to us about what this does from a coaching standpoint, about having a player that has had to adjust and kind of find a way to compete, and how that now becomes part of the things that are in your toolbox as a coach, moving forward when you're addressing future student athletes.
Speaker 4:I didn't think about this yet.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it gives us something to fall back on right. If Trevin can do it, any of us can do it. You know he's been such a blessing to the team Just having the boys see what he can do, knowing how hurt he was. And you know, the first day or two of tryouts when Trev wasn't there or he wasn't hitting, the boys were a little nervous about the season. They like that. They confided in me that you know we felt really good going into the season. But now we've lost one of our, one of our studs and it the message was the same. We haven't lost him, he's just out for a little bit. So let's see what he can actually do. And to see them rally around him and cheer him on and see him come out of this not only a better player but a better person, because he had to go through some adversity, was huge for the team.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and that's and that's the other part of it too Right, you're not only losing a player that's going to play at the top of your singles lineup, but as tight as the team is, as close as the team is, you also lose that that kind of teammate piece right in that mix, also lose that that kind of teammate piece right in that mix. And obviously he was around and was going to be around.
Speaker 2:But it's a little bit different when you're a student athlete on the court and having that game match experience as opposed to just being a bystander well, and they care about him like like we said, they're all friends and to see your friend go down and not be able to do the thing that he loves and the thing that he's really good at, that's tough and we had to come together as a team and rally around Trev and tell him that it was going to be okay Whether he was playing not playing in the doubles on up in the singles lineup. We were going to support him in whatever choice he made to try to figure this out and I actually think it made us closer as a team.
Speaker 4:What had to happen yesterday for us to win that conference championship going in? What did we have to pull off?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Rockford was up 45. They had 45 points in the tournament, we had 40. And I was the last match on and so all the schools were around watching the match. I had no idea, but after the match was done the guys just flooded me and pushed me around and everything.
Speaker 2:And I heard that shoulder. Yeah, oh, my heart sank.
Speaker 1:You have no idea.
Speaker 5:I.
Speaker 1:I didn't like it at all, but they were. They were saying that we won. That was the match that won it for us.
Speaker 4:How many points did you get for one in that match? Six points, come on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, match six points come on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if we don't come on if trev takes second, we tie with rockford in the tournament, which means they win the okay red. And because we we lost to rockford in the dual match. Uh, so we were in second place going into the tournament. So we had to win the tournament outright. When I I'm very thorough and when I did the math, uh, we were slated to lose to rockford by two. If we all played to our seeds and just did our job, we were going to lose to Rock by two points. We had to have guys step up, outplay their seeds and a lot of things go right for us to end up winning the event outright, to take first place. And we had multiple flights outplay their seeds and everyone else did their job and got the amount of points they were supposed to get. And Trev was one of those players that outplayed his seed and he was supposed to take second place but he beat the player that beat him earlier in the season to solidify our outright win, to give us the share of the conference title.
Speaker 5:What other flights outplayed their seed yesterday, just to give them some love as well? Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. One doubles was slotted to be a four seed, no-transcript name hudson.
Speaker 4:uh, vellinga, vellinga right hey, either, or I say vellinga, my wife says says uh, vellinga okay, uh, well, your son, I'm not fighting anybody on it anymore.
Speaker 2:Uh was on. Was the other part of that five doubles team. Who, uh, a Rockford five doubles who beat them previously in the season they did, and that was a nice little revenge for them, especially as seniors, to go out on top One day.
Speaker 4:Trev and Beth. You don't know this yet, but yesterday is going to stand out in your mind for the rest of your life. You're sitting with oldest guy, second oldest guy, third oldest guy. But you get back, you grow up, you become a, an older person, you have all that. Uh. One day uh, trevin, bethke, with a cranky old shoulder hopefully not you get to tell your kids how you won an okay red conference championship with an underhand serve in division one, and they'll be like yeah, sure you did well and go ahead trevin yeah, they better believe it.
Speaker 1:believe it, I mean, they'll be proof. They'll be proof.
Speaker 2:You got the receipt. That's his first flight championship.
Speaker 4:Congratulations, dude.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, super congratulations.
Speaker 4:This is a great sports story. I'm so happy to sit down with you guys. We both are.
Speaker 2:Well, he's been knocking on the door for years. He's been knocking on the door for years. He's made conference finals. He's made regional finals In our singles lineup. In the OK Red, you're going to play tough opponents, no matter what, all the time.
Speaker 2:He's been right there. We've had close matches and yesterday he finally knocked down the door to take his first conference title at his flight and I couldn't be prouder. I was so happy for him to do that and to get that monkey off his back, and I can't wait to see him play at the regional.
Speaker 4:You probably had a nice night last night at the homecoming dance. Huh yeah, it made the night.
Speaker 1:Honestly. Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:That's awesome. So, this week another big week of tennis here at West Ottawa and as the AD I am always I take great pride in hosting state level events. I believe we have the best facilities in the state of Michigan, particularly when it comes to tennis 24 amazing courts within a mile of each other. So we're ready to host on Thursday. Coach and I will be at the seed meeting on Tuesday night.
Speaker 2:Yes we will.
Speaker 5:Talk to us a little bit about not only competing at regionals, but maybe, trevv, talk to us about what it means to you, as a student athlete, to be able to host a regional on our courts between the middle school and the high school.
Speaker 1:It's just so much better that you get that. It's that home field advantage, almost especially like during school hours where people are moving, walking across the North and South building. They'll go up to the fence and cheer you on and everything, and so it's just a lot better. It's the home field advantage and some of the most beautiful courts in the OK Red.
Speaker 5:Absolutely Gorgeous. Nobody can challenge us when it comes to tennis facilities. I firmly believe that.
Speaker 2:They're beautiful. We're very fortunate. I mean the community has has poured in for years to, uh, you know, give us, you know, very, very nice, uh, facilities to use in a multitude of sports, and we're just super lucky and fortunate. Uh, you know, I couldn't ask for a better, you know, middle school and high school tennis complex. You know, 24 post-tension concrete courts that are going to last for 20 years. Um, and, like Bill said, we're very fortunate to be able to host and it should be a good, fun, competitive day on Thursday.
Speaker 5:The weather looks great, so we don't have to worry about any of the delays and that sort of thing. Good, it's going to be a little bit cooler in the 60s, low 70s. Beautiful day for tennis, so really looking forward to Thursday.
Speaker 4:I hope for the team going in. What are your thoughts, Trevin? What do you guys hope to pull off at regionals?
Speaker 1:I hope we win it. The goal is to win it, so hopefully, if we do that, that would be great, but if we don't, we should get enough points to go to state to the state finals and that would be also good. But winning it is definitely our goal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, this is a great time of year for tennis. Just the spots now where championships are being played, for you know the stakes are high.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean this team's built for that. You know, I make the schedule as hard as I can. August is a gauntlet. We play schools from the east side. We play top 10 teams. I continue to try to make the schedule as hard as I can every year, cause if you're going to be the best, you got to beat the best, and this team is ready. I think it's going to be a very competitive event and we're going to see what we can do. You know the goal, like Trev said, is to take it down. That's why we're here. You know we don't suit up to lose.
Speaker 4:All right, this has been a really fun sit down. We got a team that's really moving into the next week. This week is really big. You also got a great group of parents, a great group of people with organizing the food and always that extra car for away matches, right. So we want to just thank everybody for making their contributions to Boys Varsity Tennis here at West Ottawa. Guys, we're going to see you on Thursday. We're going to keep our eyes on you and we wish you all the best moving forward. Thanks for coming on, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you for having us so much guys.
