BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Above, Shore’s Alex Zito returns a shot during a match against Red Bank Catholic on Friday at Brookdale Community College in Middletown. WEST LONG BRANCH — No respect.
There was the late Rodney Dangerfield, and now the Shore Regional High School boys tennis team.
The Blue Devils have been perfect since day one this spring, racing out to an 11-0 start, and emerging as the favorite to win the Shore Conference’s Class B Central division.
And while they entered the week ranked sixth in the Shore, the Blue Devils can’t help but feel a bit slighted.
With an experienced squad returning all but one starter from last year, head coach Greg Wyzykowski’s squad was picked to finish third in the division after last year’s 13-5 season, behind a pair of teams (St. Rose and Point Beach) — both of whom Shore beat last year and who lost significantly more to graduation.
So, are the Blue Devils playing with some extra motivation this spring?
“We use it as a motivational tool, sure,” said Wyzykowski. “But we’re really more concerned with winning matches one at a time.
“We’ve been doing it quietly all year,” the coach added. “We just figure, ‘Let’s go out and prove we’re better than anybody thought we’d be.’ ”
Thus far, the Blue Devils have done just that, beating both St. Rose (4-1) and Point Beach (3-2) to sit atop the division, with rematches against the two teams looming.
In years past, playing to an 11-0 mark against a B Central Division schedule would not necessarily be enough to earn a mention along with the Shore’s elite teams. And it appeared that was the case again this year when Shore was given the No. 7 seed in the Shore Conference Tournament despite their perfect start.
But then something happened last week that may have opened some eyes around the Shore.
St. Rose upset third-ranked Ocean Township, one of the Shore’s perennial powers, leading to widespread speculation that this year’s SCT may not be as predictable as in year’s past, though most people still expect top-seeded Marlboro to emerge with another championship.
But one of the teams that could make the most noise in the tournament is Shore Regional.
“If we play well, we have the potential to upset someone,” Wyzykowski said. “St. Rose beat Ocean, although Ocean was missing its No. 3 singles player, and we did well against St. Rose. So, the potential for some upsets is there.”
The Blue Devils are a solid squad throughout the lineup, with three solid singles players in senior Robert Mikolon at first singles, junior Ricky Braha at second and senior Alex Zito at third.
“Rob is struggling a bit because he’s finding out that first singles is totally different than third singles, where he played year,” Wyzykowski said. “But he’s doing a great job of competing, and the experience he’s getting will help him when he gets to East Stroudsburg (where he has a scholarship). He’s learning that no matter how hard you hit the ball at first singles, it’s always coming back. He always has a real fight on his hands every match.
“Ricky was also our second singles player last year, and is a real anchor at that spot,” the coach continued. “He’s unbeaten thus far and playing very well.”
As for Zito, he was the Blue Devils No. 1 singles player last year, but lost very close challenge matches to both Mikolon and Braha this season.
“I was a little concerned with how he’d react to that, but he’s really responded well and has played very well,” Wyzykowski said. “We may not have a dominant No. 1 player, but we have three very good singles players who can compete with anyone.”
The Blue Devils’ doubles teams are both undefeated, and have been the strength of the team thus far.
“Our doubles are our backbone, Wyzykowski said. “I think they’re going to surprise some people in tournament play. They tend to get lackadaisical sometimes, but they have the talent and the confidence to compete with the best.”
At first doubles are seniors Brian Bettenhausen, who was part of a doubles team that qualified for the state tournament last year, ad Ryan Paskin, who returned to the team after a two-year hiatus.
At second doubles are senior Chris Parker and sophomore Steve Adams.
Shore’s success may not have given them the respect they deserve thus far, but it has certainly given them confidence.
“We never expected to be undefeated at this point,” Wyzykowski said. “With all the cold days in March, kids tend to stumble once in a while. … And we’ve had a lot of close matches. Not so much in the final scores, but in the scores of the individual matches. We’ve won a lot of sets 6-4 and 7-5.
“But we had high hopes with all the seniors in the starting lineup, and now we’re just hoping it keeps going.”
As the seventh seed in SCT play, Shore hosted 10th-seeded Toms River East on Tuesday, with the winner to travel to Manalapan to take on the second-seeded Braves today.
Wyzykowski, who also teaches tennis at an academy in East Brunswick, is familiar with a lot of the Braves’ players and is confident that, with a win Tuesday, his squad would at the very least give Manalapan a battle.
“This year’s conference tournament is wide open, where anything can happen,” he said, pointing to the seeding process as a reason. “I think they’ve based the seeding on the previous years, rather than on the teams’ play and records thus far.”
Beyond the SCT, Wyzykowski is looking forward to seeing how his players perform in Saturday’s Monmouth County Flights Tournament, to be held at Tindall Park in Middletown.
“Not all of the teams in the county enter that tournament but, regardless, I could see our guys doing well there,” the coach said. “I think they all have a great shot.”
And then of course there’s the state tournament, where Shore can expect to be one of the top teams in the Central Jersey Group II bracket.
“I think we can do very well in the states,” Wyzykowski said. “Hopefully, we can get the top seed and not see some of the tougher teams until the later rounds.”
If the Blue Devils continue to rack up wins through the remainder of the regular season and tournament play, they could very well find themselves playing for some hardware in the next few weeks.
And more importantly, some guaranteed respect.