New coach brings new excitement to VC boys tennis team




Senior Tommy Pelletier, Valley Center’s No. 1 singles player this year, has been putting in almost 5-hours of practice a day to improve his game.

Senior Tommy Pelletier, Valley Center’s No. 1 singles player this year, has been putting in almost 5-hours of practice a day to improve his game.

Senior Tommy Pelletier, Valley Center’s No. 1 singles player this year, has been putting in almost 5-hours of practice a day to improve his game.The Valley Center varsity boys tennis program isn’t usually mentioned in a conversation about the county’s top tennis teams.

But with a new coach who grew up in Valley Center and has a passion for teaching the game to younger players, all that might change.

New coach Seth Leichtfuss came to Valley Center when he was only five years old, and he says he’s “always” played tennis. He moved away for a few years for work, but now that he’s back in his home town, he says he’s ready to help the VC tennis program take root.

“We barely have enough for a varsity team and we don’t have a JV team this season,” he says. “So my hope is that we can make tennis fun for the younger kids here, and maybe when they get older, they’ll want to come out and play for their school.”

Leichtfuss, who coached the VCHS JV girls tennis team last season, also ran a pair of tennis camps in Valley Center this summer—one with SportQuest, a faith-based organization dedicated to teaching kids the right way to play sports, and the other through VCHS. He also teaches private lessons, though he admits his duties as the varsity boys coach this spring limit his time for private lessons.

“It’s new for me to go from leading a weeklong camp to coaching a varsity team for the whole season,” he says. “It’s a different approach using different methods. And even when I coached the JV girls, most of them were brand new to the sport, so I spent a lot of time just teaching the fundamentals. But with the varsity boys, we’ve got a mix of players who have played for a long time and some new players, so I’ll have to balance that higher-level training for the more advanced players with teaching solid mechanics to the players with less experience.”

The Jaguars’ lineup will see some minor changes throughout the season, Coach Leichtfuss says, but the team will rely on some experienced players.

Playing first singles this year will be team captain Thomas Pelletier, a senior who Coach Leichtfuss says has been working as many as five hours a day to improve his game for the season.

In second singles will be Billy Mayer, a relatively new tennis player who switched from soccer. His new coach says that he’s amazed at how well Mayer has gotten in such a short time in the new sport.

And another senior, Adam Cervantes, brings three years of tennis experience to the team.

The usual team for first doubles will be Tanner Leader and Richard Tapia, a senior duo that Coach Leichtfuss will count on for their experience.

“It’s great to have seniors I can challenge as a coach,” Coach Leichtfuss says. “I’m able to push them more and focus on coaching instead of instructing.”

Also joining he team will be junior Alex Nichols, who is currently injured but is expected to rejoin the team this season, as well as a pair of freshman, Jonathan Glassell and Brian Morningstar.

“Both our freshmen had brothers who played for VC tennis teams in the past,” Coach Leichtfuss says. “Our younger guys only have a little experience, but they’re great athletes, so we’re going to emphasize proper technique to help them not only this year but in building for next season as well.”

The Jaguars have a pair of tennis matches this week. They have already played at Del Norte on Wednesday, and they return home to Adams Park to host Orange Glen on Thursday at 3:15 p.m.


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