This year the tennis team at West is being led by a new face. Josh Valverde is a former Viking tennis player himself and knows that winning starts with conditioning. "The first couple days I think they hated me," he said.
He's not exaggerating. "He was making us do squats and running," recalls junior Leslie Vasquez. "I was like what?" But as the team started to rack up wins the girls started to buy into their new coach and it's Vasquez who's leading the way on the court.
"She's quiet but she never complains," said Valverde. "She's just ready to get out here and get after it." Vasquez is currently unbeaten after three singles matches and has rarely dropped a set. Impressive stuff for someone who was on JV last year but it's even more incredible when you find that last year was the first time she picked up a racket.
"They (her friends) told me to get more involved and I was like 'well I don't really know anybody' and they're like 'you should do tennis' and I was like 'ok'."
For Vasquez school comes first, something that's increasingly apparent when you find out she has all AP classes.
But thanks to her newfound talent she's ready to focus more on tennis. "I want to get up there you know?" she said.
Thanks to her unbeaten start and the Viking's early record, West has a chance to win their first league title since 1981. "I'm letting these guys know that they've got some potential," said Valverde. "Just come out here and keep working. Keep striving to be better."
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