It’s a cold Monday afternoon, somewhere in the thirties to be inexactly exact. However, the soaked tennis courts and the cold, and the fact that their meet got canceled doesn’t change the mood of the Spartan boy’s tennis practice. As players play a game where they are separated into two different teams, and score rapid-fire points, with the two who won the point staying in and the other two rotating out, it’s easy to feel the energy in the air as the athletes make the most of their opportunity to swing the racket.

This year the weather has been a nuisance, as sophomore Maik Nguyen said,“There’s definitely a lot of snow and rain canceling a lot of practices. But most detrimental is the cold canceling matches, because usually if there’s no rain, the courts are ready to play on. But if it’s too cold, it’s like, you still can’t play. So that’s the worst: when the courts are good enough to play, but it’s too cold.”

Despite the demoralizing nature of the weather, the team trudges on with the help of a strong culture.

“We’re a very communicative and high-spirited team. We’re very loud and you’ll see us yelling across each court saying stuff like ‘Let’s go Harry’ or ‘Let’s go Jacob’.”

Everyone on the team has their own goals, but for Maik, his come in the form of wanting to win the state championship in the individual category, and for the team as a whole to win the overall team state title.