Mariana Hurtado is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Notre Dame Prep for AZPrep365.com

For the first time in six years, the Notre Dame Prep Saints varsity boys are headed to the state championship with an undefeated 14-0 regular season.

“It was a really good season, very proud of our whole team. We have three seniors on the team so definitely meant a lot to those three guys, including our whole team in general,” head coach Trey Terry said.

Last year, the Saints made it into the quarterfinals. In 2022, they also made it into the quarterfinals before they were beaten. In 2021, the team fell short in both singles and doubles.

As this regular season ends, this team offers a behind-the-scenes look at their program, how schedules are created, what goes into practice, and many more details that make up a perfect season.

Terry's arrival

Before taking the role of head coach, Terry was brought to Notre Dame Prep as an assistant coach.

“I am a tennis instructor in Scottsdale and last year another instructor I know asked if I was interested in being the assistant coach. So last year I was the assistant coach and then this year I became the head coach.”

Serving as the coach of girls golf in the fall and boys tennis in the spring, Terry successfully balaned his duties to lead the tennis squad to the championship once again.

Work begins early

Before any season, teams have tryouts in order to see who will make the cut to be part of the varsity team.

“Usually if we have more than per se you know 12 come out, I would run like last year we had to make some cuts. This year we had 11 guys come out and then ultimately our team ended up a final of 10. The 11th guy just decided not to play,” Terry said. “We had a full six on varsity and then we had four guys on junior varsity with on of those junior varsity guys being able to bounce back and forth between varsity and junior varsity throughout the season.”

As well as preparing for making the varsity team, preseason is also used to create the schedule for both game days and practice. 

“Schedules are initially made by the Arizona Interscholastic Association, based on the size of your school and the division and conference in which you play. There is also a limit to how many matches a school and student can play,” athletic director Mike Mahon said.

Handling equipment

The coach and the athletes provide equipment used throughout the season.

“Each of the guys plays with their own racquets. Preference on brand or anything like that. We do use the balls that we play throughout the season, which are ProPenn tennis balls,” Terry added.

“For practice no, really unlimited amount of balls that you would want to use to practice. Typically, we practice with, I have a basket of about anywhere from about 120 to 150 balls, and that’s for use of drilling or when they’re playing challenge matches or anything like that during a regular practice.”

But when it comes to state tournaments and championships the ball regulation changes.

“The AIA has a rule that we use the Wilson US Open balls. So for our last week of practice in preparation, we have been practicing with those balls,” Terry said.

Practices are also a huge fundamental part of preseason. Making sure all the boys are ready to start the season with the right foot.

“Just making sure that are our practice facility, we practice over at Scottsdale Ranch, making sure that that’s all set up as well as just kind of getting an idea of what type of practices willing to run because we only have two weeks before our first match before we are finished with tryouts. So it's a limited amount of time, so those two weeks before the season starts are definitely critical,” Terry said.

For in-season practice, things run somewhat differently for when the team is first preparing to come into the season start according to coach Terry.

“For practice, being a tennis instructor we always start with either any kind of footwork and dynamic warm-ups just to kind of get the body warmed up and body loose rather than just kinda jump in right up and hitting tennis balls.” 

“I like to run drills, specifically this year we not only went undefeated but we did not lose a single match for doubles. My primary focus this season was teaching, working and drilling with the players on our team doubles. In my opinion, doubles is a huge part of high school tennis because there are three doubles matches that are played typically first and then there are six singles matches. You have to win five total points, so by us not losing any doubles right of the bat every match, we were able to accumulate three points before even going into the singles matches.”

Getting to away matches

Throughout the season, some teams may face other schools outside of a certain radius that may be considered an away game.

“The coordination of transporting not only the tennis team but of any of our sports for our road games we have our own busses,” mentioned athletics communications coordinator Josh Greene.

“For any away matches, we travel as a team on a bus. Either, typically I drive the school bus for those matches depending on the distance. If they are further away matches, then usually the school will coordinate but we will still be all traveling together,” Terry added.

“The only travel we had this year was to Yuma HS, but the girls were away, and the boys were home,” Mahon said  “So, the boys only traveled in the Phoenix Metro area this season.”

Building relationships

Great communication between athletes and coaches is crucial to making a strong team. Building relationships is what creates those safe place environments where athletes want to continue their careers.

“Just a lot of communication either with the students themselves via their school emails as well as parents of incoming students,” is what coach Terry does to create that engagement with their athletes.

Not only having great communication with the athletes outside of the court is important but having a coach who pushes the team to their best potential.

“Biggest advice, the biggest thing that I tell all the guys is to stay in the moment for each individual shot. Whether it be the game or you know ideally in each individual shot. Tennis is a long match, typically even if you are playing singles or doubles and you’re hitting a lot of different points,” Terry said. “It is easy to go on you know a few five, 10, 15 minutes straight were you kinda not focusing. So if you can stay in the moment on each one, and just treat each point and each game with you know as much intensity throughout, you’ll be far better off. Just understanding that tennis is not a game of perfect.”