The University of Alberta in Edmonton, where winter can last from early October to late April, may seem an odd choice for Jared MacLean to pursue a tennis scholarship.
But the school’s eight indoor courts and state-of-the-art training facilities at its Saville Community Sports Centre, as well as the presence of two former teammates from Heritage Woods secondary school in Port Moody made it an easy choice for the newly-honoured Coquitlam Secondary Schools Athletic Association’s graduating male athlete of the year.
In fact, that kind of kinship and camaraderie among the eight players of Heritage Woods’ tennis team that carries on even beyond their high school careers may be part of the reason the school has won the BC High School provincial tennis championship three years running, said Eddie Wu, another graduating player.
“We practise together, we grew up together,” said Wu, who’s heading to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York in the fall, also on a tennis scholarship.
Wu transferred to Heritage Woods three years ago because he competed with another of the school’s graduating players, Jayden Nielsen, and she’d play up the team’s spirit and motivational leadership from its coach, Kelly Powell, during conversations between matches at tournaments they played together.
Nielsen, who’s accepted a tennis scholarship at Sacramento State University in California, said the team works hard to make everyone a better player.
“We cheer each other on,” she said. “We talk about what we need to work on.”
MacLean said that support really paid off during a run of tough doubles matches at the recent high school championship at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver.
“We really had to have each other’s back,” he said, adding the senior players had to pick up the mantle of leadership for the team’s younger players.
“We’ve got be someone they can look up to,” Wu said.
All three players say the team atmosphere is a welcome break from the grind and stress of competing as individuals at the club level.
“When it’s a team, even when you lose, you can still win as a team,” Nielsen said.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” MacLean said. “It’s an individual sport but you’re also doing it for your team.”
And that all-for-one-one-for-all approach can be the difference-maker in matches against similarly skilled and ranked opponents that can last up to three hours, Wu said.
“It’s all mental,” he said.
But even as they prepare to move on to their post-secondary challenges, the three graduating champions believe the connections they made at Heritage Woods will help them succeed there as well. And they won’t be leaving the bonds they’ve formed completely behind as they’ll still be competing with and against each other at regional and national tournaments during the summers, as well as keeping their eyes on their successors at their high school alma mater.
“It’s not like we’re leaving forever,” MacLean said. “We’ll still be checking in on the team.”
