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Dream finally becomes reality for Kennedy boys tennis team, Knights bring home city championship to end three-decade drought

By Christina Ton

June 21, 2011 -- Over the last three decades, a New York City championship was nothing but an increasingly-distant memory for the John F. Kennedy High School boys’ tennis team. However, that all changed last month, when the Knights capped off a magical 2011 season by taking down Eleanor Roosevelt in the finals of the “B” Division tournament to bring a PSAL title back home to the local Bronx school.

These same two teams had met earlier in the season, with JFK winning three matches-to-two in a series that was so close it basically came down to a single point. This time around, in the best-of-five series that decided who would be crowned champions, top-seeded Kennedy claimed four of the individual matches against second-ranked Roosevelt.

JFK senior Anvar Musayev thoroughly dominated his counterpart in second-singles on the way to an easy 6-1, 6-0 triumph. In the second-doubles matchup, the Knights’ senior duo of Zikrullah Choudhury and Melvinn Mejia survived a tough first set before quickly finishing off the opposing team in a lopsided second set. A combination of Choudhury’s poaches and effective slice serves along with Mejia’s agility and great defensive lobs led to a 7-5, 6-0 victory for the Kennedy pair.

Senior Steven Wilson did not have it quite so easy and left his teammates holding their breath after splitting the first two sets of the first-singles match. However, the squad’s top star shined when it mattered most and managed to pull out the third set of a thrilling 7-6, 4-6, 10-8 win.

As it turned out, though, it was first-doubles that would actually prove to be the most memorable match on this championship day. Facing what was arguably the best first-doubles team in the entire city, JFK’s tandem composed of senior Kedarry Ransome and junior Joseph Nuesi appeared to be in trouble after dropping the opening set. However, the two Knights dug down deep and rallied back to sweep the second and third sets, winning the match by a score of 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 to seal perhaps the biggest upset of the 2011 season and more importantly, officially clinch the trophy for their team. 

Considering the fact that Kennedy had not won a championship in 30 years, this tournament run might seem like the epitome of a miracle. Yet, the truth is this group of players has been gradually building towards this moment and they have enjoyed a successful run that actually extends back a couple of seasons. In fact, this was the Knights second consecutive undefeated regular season and the team has won 29 straight regular season contests dating all the way back to 2009.

For many years before that, though, the future of the boys’ tennis team at Kennedy seemed dismal, with eight dilapidated courts as well as a general lack of direction and motivation, it was becoming increasingly clear that the glory days were long gone. Then, between the years of 2007 and 2008, Javier Luna -- an alum of the JFK tennis program -- made a very generous donation that helped fund a much-needed repair of the school’s courts.

The real turnaround began in 2008, when Jason Loeb first joined the program as the team’s assistant coach under Felicia Green. One year later, Loeb took over the head coaching position and the rest is history. Coach Loeb provided the perfect combination of enthusiasm and leadership that this program had sorely been lacking for much of the prior three decades. Although he managed to reignite the fire under this team, there was still much work that had to be done.

While Loeb was graced with two noteworthy talents in Wilson and Musayev, the coach’s remaining lineup consisted of beginners with whom he had to essentially start from scratch. According to Loeb, the players had low skills at first when it came to technique with their serves and groundstrokes, but he spent a great deal of time on a daily basis working with them, training them and reaping the rewards by watching their games progress exponentially.

The most improved of the bunch might be senior Biju Mollik, who originally came to the team with no prior experience and eventually stepped up to become Kennedy’s everyday third-singles player during his final season on the squad. The boys not only excelled on the court, but also took this strong work ethic with them to the classroom, with the best example of this being Ransome, who had an 18-5 record at first-doubles while also graduating as the valedictorian of his class.

Without question, though, when it came time to take the court, nobody was more valuable to the Knights than their top two singles players. Wilson went 38-1 over the last four years and will be heading to Wilkes University in the fall on a tennis scholarship, while Musayev went undefeated (35-0) since Loeb became head coach and at one point this past season, he won a staggering 110 straight games.

The final pieces of the puzzle might have come together after the 2010 season, when Loeb hired assistant coach Michael Schwartz -- who played tennis for the University of Alabama -- to help inspire and push the boys even further.

“Our strategy and approach of me being the ‘bad cop’ and Michael being the ‘good cop’ really helped these kids in reaching down inside themselves to do more than they thought they could,” said Coach Loeb.

After two straight appearances in the semifinals of the city tournament, the Knights were determined to get over the final hurdle that was still standing between them and a championship. The team worked tirelessly during the offseason, with cardio training and indoor tennis practices. Then, even as the 2011 schedule got underway, most of the boys would regularly stay more than an extra hour after mandatory practices to keep fine-tuning their game. Off the court, the players would discuss other important aspects of the sport, such as mental toughness, to make sure they had different strategies in their arsenal to deal with a variety of pressurized situations.

Now, after several years of steady improvement, all of the focus, hard work, discipline and countless hours of practice time has finally paid off for coach Loeb and his talented squad ... and not a moment too soon. With eight of nine players on the roster graduating and Kennedy High School still scheduled to be phased out over the next few years, it is very likely that the 2011 season was the tennis team’s last. If that is the case, the Knights could not have gone out in better style.   

“It was the best, most thrilling feeling I have ever had as a coach because I love the guys so much and I knew how hard we worked,” said Coach Loeb. “I was also aware that this was our best and last shot of winning a city championship for Kennedy, especially since the whole team except for one player was graduating. [It was a] dream come true.”