If you ask any athlete at CHS what his or her team’s goal is for the season, you will almost always hear “to win a State championship” as the response. Considering that CHS has won 119 IHSAA State championships, over twice the number of any other Indiana high school, this statement is not surprising.

Despite CHS’s history of athletic domination, the fact that many CHS teams fail to reach this goal often goes unnoticed every year. One team last year was the men’s tennis team, who came just short of winning a State title. However, Ashwin Sundaram, men’s tennis team member and senior, said the members of the team are more motivated than ever this season to redeem themselves.

“Last season we lost in a really close State final match to a very obnoxious North Central crowd and team. I think that loss will really motivate me and the rest of team to work harder than ever, especially due to the fact that it was so close and they had such poor sportsmanship,” Sundaram said.

Aside from the CHS men’s tennis team’s heightened desire to return to the State championship after falling to North Central by one point in the 2014 State championship, there are also other significant changes facing the team this upcoming season.

Most notably, Mike Bostic, former head coach of both the men’s and women’s tennis teams for over a decade will not be returning this season in order to spend more time with his family. Under the leadership of Bostic, the men’s tennis team earned five State championship titles, the most recent being a three-peat of titles in 2010, 2011 and 2012. However, Bostic said that the championships and victories will not be what he misses most about coaching the men’s tennis team.

“I’ll miss all the times in between the matches: the bus trips, the team gatherings and the team functions. I’ll certainly miss the competitions, but it’s those in-between times that I’ll truly miss. The players all mean a lot to me, and are people that I want to keep in touch with in the future. It’s an end to our relationship as coach and player, but as friends, it’s not the end of it,” Bostic said.

In Bostic’s place as head coach will be Spencer Fields, the former head tennis coach at both North Central and Park Tudor. Despite his former coaching positions at rival schools, Fields said he has big goals for the CHS program.

“I hope to continue the tradition of excellence at CHS, to provide an excellent experience for the members of the team and to achieve the highest goals at the end of the season, which include winning State,” Fields said.

In order to achieve these goals and advance the program, Fields noted the necessity of strong leadership within the team. One such leader is team member John Sullivan, who also said that strong leadership, especially from the seniors, will be a key to the success of the team as a whole.

“I’m definitely looking forward to being one of the seniors. I think in the past, the seniors haven’t done a great job of doing enough with the team. So I think we’re going to try to have more group events and group activities,” Sullivan said.

In addition, Fields has won State championships not only as a coach, but as a player, so he said he has the experience needed to know what it takes to win crucial matches.

“I think the day-to-day operations will be a little bit different than they’ve been in the past. One of the biggest changes will be the emphasis on good and proper practices because I’m a big believer in getting the little details done in practice. I will also bring efficiency to everything that we do,” Fields said.

Like Sullivan, Sundaram said he agrees that team bonding will play an important role in the success of the team.

“I think we all need to and are going to try to be as close as possible by having a lot of team hangouts. Especially because we are a pretty small team compared to teams like North Central, and being closer will definitely help us,” Sundaram said.

Fields, Sundaram and Sullivan all said they believe this season’s team has the potential to win a State title.

“One of our main goals is to win the State championship, but before that we have to focus on building a strong team and figuring out our lineup,” Sullivan said. “I have kind of a unique opportunity
being a senior, to be a part of the leadership part of the team, and hopefullyworking with the other seniors, we can accomplish the main goal of winning State.”

“I think our biggest strength is how many seniors we have and how we all work together really well because we’re all really good friends. The closer the people on your team are, it’s obvio
us that your team is going to achieve more, and achieve more together, rather than everybody playing for themselves.