In a season that has already featured senior Tyler Blessing winning his 100th match; the Moorestown High School boys tennis team is hopeful that isn’t the only accomplishment they’ll celebrate this year.
“Our goal every season is to compete for a state championship,” head coach Bill Kingston said. “That is not an easy goal to obtain. We talked about last year and what made it successful. We look back as a team to see what we can learn, do differently.”
Moorestown is no stranger to success under Kingston. His teams have won South Jersey titles every season since 1977 except 2005. The Quakers own six Group III crowns, winning previously in 1978, 1981, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2013. Kingston, who recorded victory number 1,000 as a coach last season, is quick to deflect any credit onto his team.
“We have a culture within the team where each year the team learns from the previous groups. Tyler and Alex Epstein are our senior leaders and they’ve really taken over the direction of the team.”
According to Kingston, how much of an influence the captains have varies year to year. Moorestown’s tradition of success is something seniors like Blessing take upon themselves to uphold.
“Every year is different. Some years our captains are better than others. Last year we had a good one with Hamza Husain. These two are really good. They have the conversation with the team on what we want to and what we can accomplish,” Kingston said.
Blessing has been the type of player a team can build around since his freshman season.
“He’s been in the varsity lineup for four years and he’s gotten better every year. Each year he has moved up a spot. He started as a doubles player then moved to third singles and up from there,” Kingston said. “Each year he’s had to improve accordingly and he has done that.”
In picking up win number 100, Kingston said Blessing handled it like a professional would.
“He never said a word about it. I’m not sure how aware he was at the exact moment but I know he knew he’d get there. It’s a major accomplishment,” Kingston said. “He could have had more in his career. He’s been here in years when we played a lot of different guys so he played less matches than he could have. He’s a great player, he has been since he got here.”
