The Gloucester High School boys’ tennis team has been making waves in the community, both on and off the courts this year. The team is organized under the direction of Carlos Morales, who has nicknamed this year’s team “The Bad News Dukes.”

This is Morales’s fourth year coaching boys’ tennis, but the first year he managed to lead the team to regionals. The team ended the year with five wins and seven losses. Most of the wins were shutouts; the team either lost with a fight or won by a landslide. Because of this, the team not only got the opportunity to compete in regionals, but also managed to send the top two players to compete in singles regionals.

Jeffrey Cho and Bryce Weigartz, who were the top-seeded players on this year’s Gloucester team, competed in singles regionals on May 15. The complete team competed in regionals on May 21 and lost, placing seventh in the region.

Coach Morales made an effort to show the team how to find the balance between maintaining a competitive spirit, playing to their best ability all the while enjoying the game. The community service projects that the team has undertaken have not only benefited the community, but has also brought team members closer together.

Kevin Hutzler, the number three player on the team, said that, “the people on the boys’ tennis team are some of the greatest guys I’ve ever met.” The team has shared a number of experiences together ranging from washing dishes together to speaking on the morning show on 99.1 WXGM.

The coach’s attitude has had a lasting positive impact on the team and its performance. Morales’s spirit of optimism and inspiration has kept the team from a fierce heat and maintained an atmosphere of respectful competition. “Camaraderie was the best part of the team this year, a lot of jokes and lots of laughter,” Morales said. “It made me want to come back next year.”

The team has also been building a reputation for itself off the courts through volunteering in community service projects. Although the team participated in such projects in past years, members have recently been much more active in this area. This is not only because most of the boys are enrolled in the school’s honor societies and need community service hours, but also “because Gloucester is such a small community and everyone is always helping each other,” Morales said.

On April 28, the team spent their Saturday setting up the Gloucester Montessori School fundraiser serving food and cleaning up. More recently, the boys’ tennis team visited Petsworth Elementary School as that school prepared for SOL testing. Petsworth invited the team to their SOL pep rally to inspire the elementary students.

Soon the team will sort through its collection of tennis balls to pick out the more worn ones to donate to the Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society for the animals at the shelter to play with. The team intends to continue this tradition of community service in the years to come.

“There is a big group of organized able-bodied kids and what better thing to do than help out. It’s a real team building exercise,” Hutzler said.

During the summer, the team plans to work with Gloucester’s middle schoolers on the courts as part of a sports summer camp. They hope to train and condition as many rising eighth graders as possible to compete in the junior tournaments this coming school year. For more information on how to register, e-mail Morales at carlos.morales@gc.k12.va.us.