NEW PALESTINE — After winning the program’s first Hancock County Tournament team championship since 2018 and 16th all time, New Palestine boys tennis coach Jean Graham immediately paid homage to her players without hesitation this past September.
She wasn’t alone.
A few weeks prior, legendary Delta tennis coach Tim Cleland praised Graham’s team’s competitiveness, despite New Palestine losing the match, 4-1, to the eventual Hoosier Heritage Conference champions.
The 2020 season was grueling for Graham’s Dragons with COVID-19 contact-tracing quarantines and a near-daily revamped lineup due to missing players and the uncontrollable.
To see the Dragons win four individual county titles that day was fulfilling, but it was just the start as New Palestine finished the season 19-4 overall, second in the HHC, captured their first sectional team title since 2018 (18th overall) and reached the team regional finals for only the second time in program history.
“You lost matches you would have probably won if they played, so that was very frustrating in 2020, but I really found out (after that season) that these kids really want to be together,” Graham said while recalling the past two years.
“They saw the 2020 seniors and how disappointing it was for them. How their season was so up and down and how the girls didn’t even have a season (in spring of 2020). They really relished the fact that they were able to play this year and play the entire season. I’m so glad we didn’t have to go through it again.”
Instead, the Dragons were dominant behind their six senior starters with Graham in her fourth year. Named the HHC Coach of the Year, Graham also earned the title of 2021 Daily Reporter Boys Tennis Coach of the Year.
“My goal is to be successful, but I’ve had great parents, too. We have the middle school program up and going again. I think, we had 60 kids in the program this year, and you have to have that feeder program,” Graham said. “And, it’s about making it fun for the kids to go out there and play.”
The Dragons enjoyed themselves on a regular basis, defeating every county team — all three twice this season — to reclaim their place at the top.
Graham along with assistant coach Shelby Hall, who steered the junior varsity team to a 17-0 season, put the Dragons in position to succeed this year, but it was the work by players that netted the trophies.
“I knew their freshmen year, I had a special group of boys. They worked hard, had a very good attitude and just a nice quality group of boys,” Graham said. “It was getting them to buy into the fact that they had to work on tennis more than during the season to get to the level that they want to be, and Ezra (Schwier), Jackson (Havel), Clayton (Wesley) and Colin (Darley), they really bought into that. It made a huge difference in our run this year. Jackson and Ezra were really good leaders. That really made a huge difference this year.”
Schwier and Havel served as co-captains on the team and were two of the Dragons’ key seniors, in addition to Wesley, Darley, Zach Au and Devon Bird.
New Palestine had three seniors starting at singles and three more among the four doubles players. With Schwier, a three-time varsity county champion, at No. 1 singles, Darley and Au gave New Palestine a strong 1-2-3 mix.
With Wesley and Havel at No. 1 doubles, the Dragons proved difficult to beat, especially when Bird and freshman Moses Haynes continuously providing points at No. 2 doubles.
The Dragons’ lone losses this season came against Delta, Noblesville and Whitleland during the regular season and North Central during the regional finals.
“In the regional, when we played North Central, they were ranked No. 2 in the state. Carmel won (state), but Carmel barely beat them (in the state quarterfinals, 4-1). We got games on (North Central), but we couldn’t win matches. But, we weren’t a pushover either,” Graham said. “That was a real credit to these boys and how they improved.”
Their improvment took shape in the offseason and carried into the fall as the players worked with Mt. Vernon assistant coach Graham McMullen at his academy. Being senior laden was a bonus that paid dividends.
The key ingredient, however, Graham emphasized, was the return of Darley, who voluntarily sat out in 2020 to safeguard his brother, Trevor, from potentially contracting COVID-19. Trevor was battling cancer when Darley made his decision.
“He was our missing puzzle piece last year. He was my No. 2 singles player, and he had 18 or 19 wins this year. To lose that overnight and then get hit with COVID-19 contact tracing on top of that, that was just a little bit too much to bounce back from. But, to get him back in the lineup was huge. We needed him at No. 2,” Graham said. “What a great attitude he has, too.”
Au, who started at No. 3 singles, won a county title and put together a streak of 14 consecutive victories, while Havel and Wesley were also doubles county champions. Bird and Haynes won county in addition to Schwier going back-to-back at No. 1 singles.
All of them played big roles as the Dragons defeated Heritage Christian 3-2 in the North Central team regional after ending Mt. Vernon’s two-year sectional title run in the finals, 4-1.
“I take more pride in teaching the kids, getting them to enjoy tennis and after they graduate, it’s really rewarding to see some go on to play college tennis,” Graham said. “If I had some part in introducing them to the game, and they enjoyed it so much that they want to go onto the college level that’s a great feeling. I exposed them to something that I love and they feel in love with it, too.”
The Dragons played with passion this season, and it clinched Graham’s second county and sectional title in four years since taking over the program in 2018.
“When I drive by the tennis courts and I see some of my players out there playing and hitting to each other, really, that’s my biggest reward,” Graham said. “That they’re out there having fun with it.”
