The 2024 Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) Boys State Tennis Championship took place on Monday, Oct. 21, and Tuesday, Oct. 22, at Woods Tennis Center. The East Spartans prevailed once again, securing the State Champion title for the fourth year in a row.

At the 2022 and 2023 State championships, Lincoln East won with a perfect score of 60 points, meaning they didn’t lose a single match. In 2021, East was almost perfect with a winning score of 54 points. This year, the pressure was on to get a fourth title, and to maintain a perfect score. Luckily for the Spartans, they accomplished both of these, winning all four of their finals matches. The team to come in second place was Creighton Prep with a score of 43.5 points, followed by Lincoln Southeast with 40 points.

“I think it is natural to feel pressure at State, because we all want to win and do our best for the team,” Chris Stock, East varsity tennis coach, said. “To counter that pressure, we really do not set team goals relating to State, or winning things. We are very process oriented. Our focus is always on trying to improve. We have a saying, ‘every match is important, but no match is special.’ We also really emphasize that no matter what happens, win or lose, everyone on the team will support you, so go play free and do your best.”

The top six varsity Spartan players that made it to State includes junior Hunter Nelson (1 singles), junior Simon Johnson (2 singles), senior Caden Haar (1 doubles), junior Samarth Sajeesh (1 doubles), senior Joseph Bucknell (2 doubles) and junior Kayden Le (2 doubles). For all of these players, it was not their first time competing at the State level.

“It was definitely harder than past years, for sure,” Bucknell said. “We gave it our all and we came out on top luckily. It was a great experience to be a part of such a great team and have memories with them.”

Winning a State title doesn’t come easily. There were many preparations that went into being ready for the tournament.

“As coach, my specific role in preparing the team for State was multi-layered I feel,” Stock said. “We needed to keep the guys fresh, healthy, and physically strong by healthy eating, getting hydration, sleep, etc. We also identified specific things to emphasize in practices that we felt would help us at State such as serving location and consistency, return of serve placements and types, and adding more aggressive net positioning in doubles play. Finally, we wanted to keep the focus on what is in front of us at that moment, not something further down the road.”

Winning one State title is hard enough, but doing it for four straight years is no simple feat. The team culture and legacy that is maintained through hard work, dedication, and leadership is apparent. While the boys season is over, the girls season will occur in the spring, in which the Spartan ladies will also try to bring home another State title.

This story was originally published on The Oracle on October 31, 2024.