2005 Boys Union County Tennis Preview

Having equaled the all time school record for total coaching wins with 739 last Friday, Westfield Tennis coach George Kapner is looking for a victory this weekend at the Union County Tournament that will not enhance his individual total but would be the most significant triumph of the year.

Until the early 1990s, Westfield dominated the Union County Boys Tennis Tournament, but Summit has won the past four years and Kapner hopes this is the season that the Blue Devils reclaim what used to be theirs.

"It has historically been a Westfield tournament," said Kapner. "The last few years it's been Summit's tournament. We want to bring the crown back to Westfield."

Dethroning the Hilltoppers will not be easy, especially with a young squad featuring freshmen at two of three single slots but Kapner believes his newcomers, Kevin Shallcross at second singles, and third singles player Ravi Netravali can combine with strong veteran doubles teams to win what should be a close team battle with New Providence(NP), Governor Livingston (GL) and Scotch Plains-Fanwood(SPF) also in the hunt.

“Kevin Shallcross and Ravi Netravali have both played exceedingly well at 2nd and 3rd singles. If they can continue to win as their experience and maturity grow, we only need to
find one more point, probably at doubles, and there is no telling how far we can go in the county and state tournaments ,” said Kapner.

Shallcross was impressive in outlasting another talented freshman, Ryan Krueger of SPF in three sets as the Blue Devils rolled to a 4-1 victory over the Raiders earlier this year. The only win for SPF was by Ryan’s older brother, senior Jason Krueger, who figures to be a top contender at first singles.
Krueger, New Providence’s Kevin Chen, the second singles champion last season and Adam Geiger of Governor Livingston head up a wide open field at first singles.

“ It should be an interesting competition. The only one of the top players I have faced was Alec Wasserman (of Westfield)” said Krueger.

“I think I have a good chance to win, as long as I play my best game.”

The Raiders also have a contender at first doubles with Billy Albizati and Jeremy Sanders, who made the semi finals last year.

The Blue Devils are strong at both doubles with Brian Kender and junior Lee Bernstein at first doubles and Andrew Levy and sophomore Jack Trimble at second doubles.

When the Blue Devils improved to 10-4 by defeating Bayonne 4-1 Friday it finally brought the veteran coach level with the legendary Gary Kehler, who gained fame for coaching football and wrestling teams during the 1960s and '70s and was also a golf coach before becoming athletic director.

Kapner has had most of his success in his 25 years at the school coaching soccer. He was the first girls coach, winning over 80 percent of his games in eleven years and has mentored the boys the past thirteen.

Kapner is pleased with the season thus far.
“Our losses have been to the top programs in the state,” said Kapner
“ Of course, our goal is to re-join those programs and be counted among the elite high school tennis teams in the state. The
only way to do that is to beat those quality programs.”

2005 Boys Union County Tennis Review

There was drama until the final match at the Union County Tennis Tournament as Westfield and record-breaking coach George Kapner wrested the title back from Summit for the first time since 1998 Friday at Donald Van Blake Courts in Plainfield. The Blue Devils, who earlier in the week had made Kapner the winningest coach in Westfield history, pulled out an 81-76 squeaker over the Hilltoppers on a victory by the second-doubles team of Andrew Levy and Jack Trimble. 5-7, 7-5, 6-3, over Summit's Vir Singh and Ben Sangree.

Westfield also got victories from freshman second singles
Kevin Shallcross and the first doubles team of Brian Kender and Lee Bernstein. as well as a second from freshman third singles Ravi Netravali. Both doubles teams defeated a Summit pair as the Blue Devils won two of the three head to head matches in the finals against their rivals to give Kapner his eighth and perhaps most gratifying Union County Tennis title.

“It’s extremely satisfying ,” said Kapner.
“Summit and Scotch Plains-Fanwood were very worthy adversaries so it certainly was not an easy task. More important to me, however, was that the team, all five positions, has been getting stronger and more confident in the last two weeks. It is very gratifying to see all their hard work come to fruition.”

Kapner was effusive in his praise for his doubles teams.
“As a high school tennis coach, there is only so much you can do with singles players in the short high school season,” said Kapner.

“But your doubles teams have to be put together from scratch and taught how to play doubles when their training heretofore has been almost exclusively in singles. I have to give most of the credit
to two seniors, Brian Kender and Andrew Levy, who took two underclassmen, Lee Bernstein and Jack Trimble, under their wings and made them top notch doubles players.”

Scotch Plains-Fanwood also had an excellent tournament finishing third with sixty points but the Raiders may have hoped for more after joining Summit as the only two teams to advance everybody to the semi finals. It set up a quasi-dual meet with the six time defending champions, which Summit took 3-1. The only SPF player to advance to the finals was freshman second singles player Ryan Krueger, who would lose in the finals to Shallcross for the second time this year but Raider coach Mark Cunnington was pleased with his effort.

“Ryan has definitely turned the corner ,” said Cunnington.
“The semi final match is a match he doesn’t win earlier in the year, but Ryan has toughened up and learned how to win the big points.”

After going 10-0 on Thursday, the Raiders appeared to be off to a great start Friday as both their double teams took early leads in their matches with Summit only to fall in close matches.

Seniors Billy Albizati and Jeremy Sanders would recover to finish third on first doubles, while senior Greg Leischner and freshman Scott Leyden would do likewise on second doubles.

Seniors Jason Kruger and John Altman finished fourth on first and third singles respectively.

The Blue Devils had started the week by upsetting eleventh ranked Bergen Catholic 3-2 to give Kapner his 740th victory, spanning six sports one more than legendary Westfield Coach Gary Kehler.

“It is certainly a milestone ,” said Kapner.
“ I have spent a great deal of time recently thinking back over all the wonderful and talented young people, many of whom are now
well past being called young, who I have had the honor of coaching over the last three decades at WHS. “

Kapner grasped the irony of breaking the record of another man with the initials “GK”.

“I am humbled by the thought that my name will forever be linked with the name Gary Kehler. He was a mentor to me in the late
1970's and 1980's as I was developing my coaching career and he is, without a doubt, not only the greatest coach in the history of WHS, but one of a handful of the greatest coaches in New Jersey history”