Coaches Corner for May 25th: Jed Hammen, Boone Boys Tennis

With us on coach's corner on KWBG, get a chance to talk Boon Boys Tennis. This guy's been pretty busy. Jed Hammond joining us. Of course, they had individual and doubles that was, I feel like that was weeks ago, but it really wasn't. It was just last Saturday. And then, of course, you had Wednesday with Team Tennis here in Boon. And so, Jed, number one, when you're a tournament coordinator, I know you don't want to give that up because, listen, it's a lot of work, yes. But boy, you love letting the kids not have to jump on a bus, jump in a van, drive hours away. So I know that's awesome. But man, that's still a lot of work. It is a lot of work. And it's really important to me that it's a good experience for everybody that comes. So we always want to do it the right way. And I'm always asking coaches at the end of the day how they felt the experience was and are the things we can improve. And so we take pride in being one of the better district hosts across the state. And we want to make it the best experience possible for all eight teams that are there. Selfishly, it's a wonderful advantage to our athletes to not have to get on a bus early in the morning and drive somewhere and have to play on unfamiliar surfaces. So I'm willing to do that to provide that opportunity for our players. And then I just do take a little bit of pride in the comments. It's always great when coaches say, hey, this was a great experience. We had a couple of new teams in our district this year that just said, wow, you guys do this the right way. And so it's just awesome to be that people notice that. And we want to continue to be that type of a site that everybody has a good day, whether you qualify for the state tournament or not, because only a handful of people are going to be able to do that. But can it be a positive experience for all the kids that are maybe playing their last match of the season? All right, so let's start with the singles and doubles coach. First off, tell me, what was the mindset? What did you think about going into this? As you talked about, there were some new teams that had never been to Boone before, actually. So tell me about that going back on the 16th. What did you think kind of going in? And how did everything kind of shake loose, where this is what we're going to set up, this is what we're hoping to get through? Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, we were hoping we would get a single and a double to advance the state tournament. We knew that was probably the best we could hope for. You get a little bit greedy and say, can you get two singles through? But we knew Bishop Helin had a really good double team coming to town, and we knew we were probably going to get one double team against them. I'm expecting the Bishop team to probably be seated third or fourth in the state tournament here coming up this week. So our boys battled really well, our ones against them, but they're just a really good team. So we knew there was only probably one double spot open, and so then we had to start really thinking about, how do we create an opportunity for another double team to get through, or another singles, or somebody to get through. And so that's where we took our second double team and split them up into singles. Not exactly what they wanted to do. They were really looking to be able to play double together again as a state qualifying team from last year, but they saw also that that was the best option for them. So Strummer and Calvin had a fantastic day, only loss coming to that Bishop Helin team. And then our second doubles team had a tremendous day, too, which are our threes, Brandon Holman and Sam Chestnut. And they've just had a terrific season. I don't have it in front of me, but I think they're like 17 or 18 wins with only three or four losses on the year. Just had a tremendous year at three. Finished third at Pella Open Tournament, finished fourth at the North Polk Open Tournament. And then to get a third place finish in our district tournament, just a really outstanding job by them. And then you switched to our singles entries. Patrick Couser had a tough draw in the first round. Couldn't be more proud of the resiliency he showed. He got beat 0-6 and was down 0-3 in the second set. And he went on to win that second set in tie break. And then he just ran out of gas. It was 85 degrees humid. And he had been on the courts for over two hours and in his super tie break, he just ran out of gas and ended up coming up a little bit short. But again, could have been real easy down 0-6 and then 0-3 in the second set to just kind of fold it up. And he didn't do that. And so I was really proud of the effort that he showed there and coming back and almost getting to win. And Braxton's Bull had a great day. Just came into some cramping issues in his semifinal match and started to affect his play, which eventually dropped him out of the tournament where he finished fourth for the day. But he played really well in his quarterfinal match and was really competing with the Denison one and then had some issues with cramping, which got in his way. So overall, we only get one team. And then we have a state alternate team. But we finished what, five of our guys finished in the top four on the day. So overall, not a bad day. So then the mindset changes because you know that four days after that, you get team-wise. And Atlantic was going to be in town for your opening round match. I think everybody said, OK, listen, if Boone takes out Atlantic, it feels pretty good. This is going to be Boone and Ballard, obviously, in the final. But boy, you guys took care of things really quickly against Atlantic. I barely got sat down and kind of looking at my schedule. OK, here's what's coming up today. Hammond, I already had the email from you. It was over. That was what you wanted to do in the semifinals, wasn't it? Yes, we took care of business right away. We were on and off the court. All three doubles quickly made work and got off. And then we got a couple singles matches on, and they took care of business as well. So we were off, and Denison and Ballard were still battling. And so it was great. Ballard ended up winning that match 5-1, but Denison put up a good fight against them. So I got our kids off, and then we just sat back and watched a little bit. But I could just tell we were locked in and ready to play that day. Probably the healthiest we've been in quite some time, too. So that was great to see as well. But we knew we were going to end for a battle in the afternoon. Well, in a battle, you were definitely in with Ballard, and we'll start on the double side of things. Coach, you're only able to take one out of the three, so you're one and two as you head into the singles. Did you have a come-to-jesus meeting with the team? Did you have to have something like that? Or did you just kind of feel like, listen, let's let these six guys go out there. Let's see what happens. You know, we got everybody together. I think we were a little bit maybe shocked that we were going to go into singles down one, two. Doubles have kind of been our thing all year long. And we had a chance to be up to one. We lost a few match points in a second set there at number one, which was a great learning lesson for my double team as they head to individual states. And so I think that will pay off for them down the run. We just circled up. And there was nobody in that circle that felt like we weren't going to win. And that's a great feeling as a coach when you have guys that are all circled up and everybody's still like, we just got to win four singles. We got this. And so the mentality was right. And so we got everybody a quick rest, and then we went back to work. And boy, did you go back to work, by the way, Jed. I mean, just looking at what you were able to come up with. And I think when you throw out your six like you did, and I know you have a ton of confidence in all six of them, it's almost like, who's going to get this? Who's going to send us on? I don't know when I look back at this, and I look back at the points, and I look back at the scores and whatnot. It was just who was going to be the last man standing, wasn't it? It sure was. And everybody competed out of those six. And the scores won't always accurately show that Braxton Spurl played probably one of his best matches, where he was the most locked in and really focused. And he really played with Easton from Ballard, who was just a tremendous player, a tremendous young man, and just could not come up on the right side of the mad games. Like, he multiple times would get to 40-40, and just Easton would be able to win two points or go back and forth, and eventually Easton would get in. So he's down 0-6, and he gets the first game of the second set, and then there's a few more dooskins. But he just kept out. That match went on for a long time, for a 0-6, 1-6 match. Like, it was a tremendously long match. And so just really proud of his effort and the leadership that he was giving and just grinding it out as a senior and wanting to do all he could do for his team. And then Brandon Holmes, who comes up short in that match as well, again, just a kid who just kept fighting, just kept grinding out there, and loses 4-6, 3-6. But just never at one point did he ever give in. And so those things matter in those moments, because your teammates see you fighting as well. And it just fuels everybody down the line and up the line. And so those were big moments, I think, for those two guys who come up short and don't win for us. But boy, was there attitude and effort in the right place. Patrick Houser has been in this spot before. Jed, was there any doubt in your mind that he was going to clinch this and you were heading back? You know, we're 4-4, and I go over and chat with him. And he was ready. And there wasn't a lot down my mind that he was going to take care of it. He just, he's like, coach, I got this, and we're good. We're good. And so we didn't even really talk that much after he split set. He was great to get right back on the court and did a great job of starting out a little bit conservative. And he got up 4-2. And then they made their first crossover. He drops one more point to make it 4-3. And then he just kind of commanded the match and went to the next six points. And he wins the meet in fashion. It was an overhead. The kid digs it out once, and then it was an overhead right back at him again that went up into the fence. And just a really proud moment for our program, for Patrick, for our team. Those are moments. Those are things that the kids will remember. That's a memory that you'll remember. And just was really cool to see how it all came together. And just to kind of be the person that just kind of watched it happen, there were a lot of ups and downs. It was about a little over a four-hour match. And we started out, it looked like, wow, we were doing really well in doubles. And then it kind of dipped. And then in singles, we were behind four out of six sets. And it looks like ballard is just so much, so many momentum changes throughout this match. Just as a guy standing and watching got to experience, and as I think back after it's all done, all the different ups and downs that happened. But just so proud of how our kids stayed the course, never panicked, never gave up, and were rewarded for their hard work and for their efforts. Jed, 10th consecutive trip. How is this team different than the ninth one, or the eighth one, or the seventh one? They're all special in their way. Last year was special because we lost our number one player in the middle of the season. And we're still able to find a way to get into the state tournament. This year, boy, there's been all different types of adversity, just injuries and sicknesses and inexperience. And you just keep asking yourself, how do we keep doing this? Like, how do we keep being a top eight program for a decade? It's something pretty special. And I've been asked by a couple different people, how does that feel, or how do you sustain that? And it all comes back to the culture of our program, the culture that was established well before I came with Coach Wells and what we've just continued to do in our culture. But it's the work that the kids do in the off season. It's the resiliency, the refusal that it's not going to be my class that is going to break this streak. So just every year, we don't have a rebuilding year. And we just haven't, since I've been here, it's just kind of a reloading year. And so guys are ready. And so that's a unique thing, because in today's day and age, there's not a lot of guys that are willing to sit and wait for their turn to be in the moment. Logan Wickman is one of those guys this year. He's a senior, but he wasn't in the top six until his senior year had to wait his turn, right? And so if we continue to have kids that are willing to just keep getting better and working hard on our JV program and putting in the time and wait their turn, I think we're going to continue to be able to sustain the success that we're having, because that's where it comes back to, is kids that are willing to wait their turn, put in the time, work hard, and then step up in the moment. And again, we've had that happen the last five years that I've been here. We continue to have guys that will step in their junior year, maybe, or their senior year and play a really big role for us, where they didn't have the previous two or three years. I'm going to let you save your voice now, Jed. I just took it all out of you. So I'm just going to tell you, have a blast with the state doubles team, and then obviously team tennis coming up in Pella. Congrats on just a fantastic postseason run so far. And we look forward to wrapping it up with you here in a couple of weeks. I appreciate all the support, Ryan. We're looking forward to the, we call this the fun stuff now. So we're looking forward to just some of the postseason and seeing what else we can do. Jed Hammond again joining us. Boon Boys Tennis here on Coaches Corner.