Tracy Chan of Dougherty Valley
P
atrick Estes was cautiously optimistic. The Dougherty Valley High girls tennis team hadn’t reached the North Coast Section Team Tournament field since 2010, and the Wildcats had just graduated three more seniors. Estes, who has been the only coach of the Wildcats program since the school opened in 2007, was hearing rumblings. “As a high school coach, you kind of get ideas from the community as to who is coming from your feeder schools,” Estes said. “ And I hear what my other players tell me about who they’re seeing in USTA events.” He was hearing about the potential of some incoming freshmen. And when Tracy Chan and Kaitlyn Nguyen arrived on the San Ramon campus, they did not disappoint. “I had a little idea of how good they were, but did not know they were as good as they actually turned out to be,” Estes said. Chan and Nguyen combined to lose just one match all season. So it was no surprise when each won their respective singles matches to help Dougherty Valley defeat Tamalpais 5-2 for its first NCS Team Tennis title on Nov. 16. Estes was right to be optimistic, because the team didn’t just win the title, it dominated. The Wildcats, which entered the field as an undefeated No. 2 seed, lost only five of their 28 matches in the tournament.
Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™
Score Digital Content: Scan SSM With LAYAR
November 21, 2013
SportStars™
15