Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Beep beep beep beep. It’s the alarm: 8:05 am. I reach my powerful right arm over to hit the sleep button, as though I am slamming an ace into my opponent’s face. I have to meet my doubles partner, Dave Frankel ’04, at 9:00 am to warm up. My consolation match is at 10:00 am. I am so pissed that I lost yesterday to that spank from Santa Cruz. But at least I looked good. Yeah, I definitely looked good. I go back to sleep for another 30 minutes.

I get to the courts at 9:08 am. It’s a great Saturday morning, crisp and delicious, sort of like the mornings back at home in Colorado. Coach Belletto informs me that my match is actually at 1:15 pm. Well shit. I could’ve used the extra sleep, with this sinus infection I’ve been fighting for the past four days. Coughing up lung butter like a crazy dude. I guess I’ll be good and warmed up when the time comes. Not that I give a darn about these singles matches. They mean nothing to me. It’s the doubles that really count, and Dave and I have a real chance at making the national championships this year. We win this tournament, and we could just ride it out till spring, practically. Coach Belletto is quite a change from Ryan Witt, our former coach. Belletto’s from the Bay Area, and this is his first college coaching position, but he’s doing a great job of it. Witt left for a lot of reasons, I guess. He just got married to this hot blonde chick and was offered a better job somewhere in the area. But when it comes down to it, I think he left because of the administration. He wanted to coach tennis; they wanted him to be the sports information director. The administration has its priorities, including football. Coach Belletto had to leave in the middle of today’s most crucial match to make sure everything was running smoothly over at the football game. Darn if you’ll see a football coach leave in the middle of a game. Bureaucratic bull-excrement, that’s what it is.

I screw around until my match at 1:15. I got a bye with the first one, because I was the highest seated player. Yeah, it sounds good, but everyone knows it means I was the best player to lose in the first round. Yipee. I take the guy in two easy matches, 6-1 and 6-3.

Dave and I head over to the Coop Store to grab a refreshing Gatorade before our doubles matches. Dave transferred here last year from Williams College in Massachussets. He says he “missed living” out there on the east coast, and I have to admit; on a warm and breezy day like today, he has a point. Samir Vora, my old doubles partner, drove in from Long Beach to watch our matches. Why doesn’t he get a job already?

Finally 4:30 rolls around, and we step out onto the court. I look smart in my light blue collared shirt and white baseball hat, contrasting with my tan skin and stunning dark features. I try to concentrate and remind myself to keep the racket out in front. I look at my racket, one of seven. I’m proud of the restraint I showed yesterday when I lost to that jackass. I have a tendency to throw rackets, which inevitably leads to breaking them. But this is a nice racket, and I’d hate to mess it up so soon.

People say I change on the court, and it’s true. Gone is the mild-mannered JR Hall my friends know and love. It’s like a snake and a mongoose in my head. I get angry, and sometimes I get cocky. But let me tell you something: the ladies love it. I try to clear my mind, but I keep humming the Michigan fight song. Too much NCAA football with my roommate, Ryan Scholl.

We take the court against Santa Cruz. In doubles, we just play one match to 8 points, and it isn’t long before Dave and I school our opponents, 8-2. Later in the day we play another match and win again, 8-5. We make an awesome team. Dave’s mom is here, and Vora and his girlfriend, Christy Garcia ’04, sit in the grass and cheer us on, as the setting sun paints streaks of orange and pink in the cool evening sky. It’s a good feeling, when you’re winning like that.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Hey, welcome back to reality! How are you feeling? Just as an update, I’d like to inform you that Hall and Frankel won the finals on Sunday and will be heading to Nationals, October 15-19. However, SCIAC has some heinous rule that says the school can’t help them pay for their trip. They’ll be doing some fundraising, but they need all the help they can get. Send them money! Write to Governor Schwarzenegger!