Tennis

from The 2018 Southportonian

Swimming

MR DAVID HODGE director of tennis

TSS has reached the pinnacle of Australian Schoolboy team tennis by winning the 2018 Championship in the Centenary Year for the GPS competition. With no shortage of heroic performances during the season, it will forever be remembered by all. Head Coach Kaden Hensel saw the First IV team realise its potential under the captaincy of senior William Timoney and unanimous Player of the Year award winner Jack McCarthy, who had considerable support on and off the court from Ethan Shoesmith and Ryan Selvey. With only William Timoney graduating and a deep line-up of career-high ranked challengers wanting to earn a First IV position, the expectations on the team are sky high for the future.

2018 saw continued performance improvements across the board as our larger playing group and extended practice hours culminated in impressive results against all schools. We were excited to open the newly resurfaced tennis courts at the Prep School this year and hope to continue to develop the facility into the premier GPS tennis home court advantage.

We were very fortunate to have so many of our exceptionally qualified staff re-commit to the team for this year’s campaign including Mr Smith, Mr Sloss, Mrs Goudy, Miss Pfeifler, and Mr Almaktoum.

We also welcomed recent TSS tennis alumni into our coaching ranks, including former Captain Max McCarthy, former Most Valuable Player recipients Vikram Nedunchezhian and Aiden Williamson, and former First IV standout Jesse Russell who had just returned from his US College tennis experience. Our yearly awards evening was a great celebration of a standout tennis season. The Hewitt Family Shield for Team of the Year was won by the First IV of Jack McCarthy, William Timoney, Ethan Shoesmith and Ryan Selvey. The Overall Most Valuable Player was won by Year 10 player Jack McCarthy who went undefeated.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS Open – Jack McCarthy Year 11 – Charlie Hanrahan Year 10 – Thomas Schwerkolt Year 9 – Saxon Gemeri Year 8 – Wylie Bucknell Year 7 – Kosta Karathanasopoulos Year 6 – Ethan Ong Year 5 – Harry Furnell

YEAR GROUP MOST IMPROVED Open – Matias McDonald Year 11 – Taj Young Year 10 – Brandon Rerrie Year 9 – Will Abbott Year 8 – Nick Doyle Year 7 – Ben Postle Year 6 – Kael Saw Year 5 – Finley Drew

Our sponsors have provided fantastic support again as our partnership with Sunshine Volvo continued to assist our program. We also welcomed a restaurant partner for the season in Subway – Southport who assisted to cater for our growing number of players and visiting teams. As always, our behind the scenes heroes at TSS were phenomenal and allowed us to focus on the job at hand. Extra special thanks to those that went above and beyond for our team, including our leaders from Friends of Tennis Mr McAuley and Ms Hewitt, Director of Sport Mr Hain, Senior School Sports Administrator Ms Maguire, Preparatory School Sports Master Mr Egan, Sports Coordinator Mr Dolan, and Sports Administrator Mr Trollope. TSS Tennis made history in 2018 but we remain focused on continuing our progression. To support our endeavours please consider joining the Friends of Tennis support group to help improve our support, fundraising and events.

Go TSS Tennis!