October 7, 2024 • 45 mins
Come along and join us for an encouraging conversation with Boys Varsity Tennis Coach Brian Metz and #2 Singles Player Trevyn Bethke, who share the nuances of a challenging 2024 fall season, and a surprise accomplishment despite overwhelming odds.
We learn about a team with talented players at every level, and a group of friends who enjoy each day together.
We take a deep dive into Trevyn's resilience as he navigates the challenges of an unexpected shoulder injury. Discover how an innovative adoption of an underhand serve became a surprising asset, demonstrating his adaptability and commitment to the team. With guidance and support from his dad Randy Bethke, coaches, and Eric Hamilton, Trevyn’s journey through injury and recovery underscores the spirit of perseverance and support that fuels the Panthers. This episode offers a heartfelt tribute to the determination and collective energy that propels the West Ottawa Boys Varsity Tennis team to achieve greatness and another OK Red Conference Championship.
This episode was recorded on October 6, 2024
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was the last match on and so all the schools were
around watching the match.
I had no idea, but after thematch was done the guys just
flooded me and pushed me aroundand everything.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Right under that shoulder.
Yeah, oh, my heart sank.
You have no idea.
I didn't like it at all.
Keep going, trevor.
But they were saying that wewon.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
That was the match that won it for us, hey
everybody, this is RodneyValinga with the West Ottawa
High School Athletic Program andyou're listening to the 29.1
Podcast 29 sports, one team, theshow that brings you into the
lives of student-athletes,coaches and other faces in the
(00:45):
Panther sports community,bringing you the stories you
might otherwise never hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
You can't ever be surprised if you're expecting
something, but when you're notexpecting it, that's when it
gets good.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
Today we're joined by Coach Brian Metz and Junior
Trevin Bethke, who are comingoff a win at the OK Red
Championships this weekend thefourth conference title in a row
for the Panthers and Trevin'sfirst flight championship.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, it was a great day yesterday at granville.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
A lot had happened for this to go our way, and it
did coach brian metz and juniortrevin bethke coming up next on
the 29 one podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Let's get it well, hey, everybody, welcome back to
the 29.1 podcast.
I'm your host, rodney Vilenka.
I'm here with Panthers AthleticDirector, bill Kennedy, and we
have two members of the mostrecent conference championship
(01:56):
team here at West Ottawa sittingdown with us today.
Who is it?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm Trevin Bethke and I'm Head Coach Brian Metz.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Two people who had a very good yesterday, to say the
least, a really good yesterday,yeah, so at conference at
Granville you guys took a shareof the conference championship
with Rockford, which we'll getinto a little bit.
But just in general, guys,welcome to the show.
It's great to have you on.
Appreciate it.
Happy to be here.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah, it's going to be reallycool.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Let's get to know you guys a little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
A lot of people know you well, but some don't.
Brian, you're a teacher atLakewood Elementary.
How long have you been teachinghere at West Ottawa?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Oh, I'm in year 12.
I'm at Lakewood and WaukeshaElementary.
A little gray in the beard nowI'm getting older.
I started Not at a few yearsand then I was at a Woodside
elementary for a couple and thisis year seven at Waka zoo in
Lakewood.
Uh, elementary PE loving it.
(02:50):
It's great, Right, and you'remarried and you have a daughter.
Right, I do Yep.
Uh, my daughter, uh, Amelia, isthree and a half.
Uh comes to a lot of the tennisstuff, which is great.
Uh, wife and I got married in2017.
So what is that year seven?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, right, yeah.
Seven Sure Sounds right, yeah,yeah.
You're not going to get introuble with us for getting your
anniversary wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
She's going to listen .
You're okay, all right.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Uh, after the those edits it came out real nice.
You got it right Perfectly.
Um, let's also do.
You've also been the varsityboys tennis coach here.
How long have you been doingthat?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
This is year seven as the boys head coach.
Before that I was the JV coachand I also coached the middle
school level a little bit.
Overall, this is year 10 thatI've been coaching for West
Ottawa.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Wow, it's been.
You've been here quite a while.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Yeah, coach started his varsity career the same year
that I came in as the athleticdirector.
So when I first met him he'slike hi, I'm Brian Metz, I'm
your varsity tennis coach.
This is my first year.
Did he flex on you?
No, I think he was a little bitintimidated when he walked into
my office the first time, forsure.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Because Bill didn't hire me.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Our previous athletic director did so.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
he had no idea what he was getting All right, so
that first meeting.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
If it goes awkward, you could lose your job.
Things can you know.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
You could lose your job, yeah, but I mean,
ultimately he's the steward ofone of our best programs.
Brian, you're always talkingabout the banner in the gym.
It's my favorite thing in thatgym.
We're getting close.
We're going to have to orderanother one soon because we have
accumulated so many conferencetitles in boys tennis that we're
(04:22):
going to run out of room on theconference title banner.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
One of my goals as a head coach is to be the first
program to hang a second banner.
Well, you're well on your way.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
We're close.
How many championships do youhave and can you break them down
from memory?
And 30 seconds is all you gotGo.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We've got four conference titles.
We've won three out of the lastfour regionals.
We've won in 2021, 22, 23, and24 for the conference and the
regional was 21.
We missed in 22.
We took second place 23 and 24.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
That's a coach who knows his stuff.
Everybody.
That was pretty impressive.
I think we probably barely gotpast 20 seconds there.
Trevin, so nice to have youhere today.
You're a junior and you'veplayed varsity tennis all three
years.
Right, that's correct.
What spots did you play whenyou got started?
What did you play when you werea freshman sophomore that type
of thing my freshman year.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I played three singles, so you played singles
right away pretty much.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah Well, you are a.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Bethke, we'll get to that in a minute.
Sophomore year.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Last year, sophomore year, last year I played two um
and now this year I'm playingtwo singles as well.
Right, and you, you know,you've always, always moved up
and done that really well.
You've come from a long line ofbethke family tennis players.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Uh, who's all played from your family yeah, so I have
, I have four siblings, andthey've all played tennis, so
taylor he's 27.
He played tennis in college too, for Michigan Tech Did he
really Okay.
Travis.
He's 24, I think now, and heplayed tennis for West Ottawa.
He played one singles and hedidn't play in college, but he
(05:56):
didn't want to, right If you'replaying one singles at West
Ottawa.
I'm sure you could?
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
They were both very good.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Right, sure you could .
Yeah, he was sure.
Yeah, they were both very good,right?
He just didn't end up playingin college.
Um, tylia, she played varsitytennis for your sister, my
sister, yep, and then shred andplayed varsity tennis all four
years um, I think he got up totwo singles.
Okay, he played a little clubat western michigan tennis, so
he's he's still sticking with ita little bit and you have an
uncle that plays too right,don't you?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
uh, you've you kind of sticking with it a little bit
.
And you have an uncle thatplays too right, don't you?
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You kind of learned from him a little bit.
My uncle, yeah, he played atPurdue, so that's a pretty good
school to play at, and we play alot.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
That's a good person to hit with Trev.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, a very good person to play with.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, you get a lot of knowledge from somebody that
age too right.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
He has a lot.
Actually, whenever he visits,we do go out and play matches
and they're pretty intense, I'dsay Cause.
I mean, if I beat him then Ican say I'm better, I've always
been better than him.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
So and you are the baby in the family.
We all know how sports goeswith babies in the family, right
, you get beat up on.
I did Something in tennis, tellus about that.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I mean when I was younger, obviously I would get
beat up on, but I feel like thatmade me better as a player.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Oh yeah, for sure Always does.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
That's why Sadie Vellenga is going to be a
superstar.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
It's funny my kids get mentioned on this podcast
and it feels like it's a lot ofpressure now.
But yeah, hopefully she'll be anice player.
Now I was talking to your dadyesterday and I'm like, hey, you
know how to try and learn howto play and all that stuff and
we learned a few differentthings, but one of the biggest
training grounds for you guys isyour family driveway.
That's right.
Yeah, go into detail about that.
(07:42):
Like, when you start doing that, what's the setup?
Like oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So we have like a couple of cars in our driveway
so we're playing tennis,swinging the racket around the
cars and everything.
Everybody's done this, but yeah, pretty much everybody's done
it.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
How many tennis balls do you have in your eavesdrop?
That's a side question, butkeep going.
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So as long as I can remember, I've been playing
tennis with either my brothersor my dad in the driveway.
And that's pretty much where Ilearned everything.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Right, you guys got the pop-up net.
Right, you guys would put thatup when you guys hit it up a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, we did.
I think it broke, but we didhave one.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
So you were way ahead of that pickleball curve right,
I mean back in the day you weredoing tennis.
Obviously Is your drivewayslanted.
Is it flat?
What's that?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
like yeah, it's got a little curve to it so it's not
like a flat surface.
Good for playing tennis.
Right, got those little familytricks, you got to pull off,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
One side's definitely better than the other.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Yeah, Take sprained their ankle.
You're also a big Tigers andLions fan.
Life's pretty good right now.
I know Bill's life is not sogood.
He's an Orioles fan.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
No, it did not.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Bill, how are you doing today?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
I'm fine today because we've got a big Ravens
game at one o'clock against theBengals, so morale is high.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, a couple days ago, when the Orioles got
eliminated, tigers took him out.
I was depressed.
Yeah, you're a little down.
I hadn't seen that too muchbefore.
Beard got a little more gray,yeah, but the Lions and Tigers
you're big fans of those guys,right?
Yes, just how do we think theTigers are going to do?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
They lost what 7 they did, I think, the next game
that they play Terry Skubal'spitching.
Yes, I think they have a verygood shot at winning that one.
I mean that guy is lights out,he is.
He'll win the Cy Young YepLions.
They have a bye this week.
It's bye week.
Yep, they had a very good lastgame.
(09:38):
Great last game versus theSeahawks on Monday Night.
Football Offense came alive, sothat was great to see Goff gets
that touchdown pass Didn't havea miss.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That was a good night Perfect game.
Yeah, it was pretty fun right.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, so you got a fantasy squad.
I do have a fantasy squad, yes,how's it going?
Not great.
I mean, I drafted Tyreek Hilland Cooper.
Cup Tua his quarterback gotinjured.
Cup Tua his quarterback gotinjured and so he's not been
getting the ball at all.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Cooper Cup got injured the first week after
dropping 32 fantasy points.
Yeah, which is that greatCooper Cup number from a couple
years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Right, he would always have big numbers, keep
going yeah, and so my runningbacks aren't very strong.
I have Travis Etienne and ZachMoss.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Well, I have both of them in my starting lineup today
, really yeah, and Zach Moss, Ihave both of them in my starting
lineup today.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Really.
Yeah, I also have Chuba Hubbard.
Is it Chuba?
I always liked saying Chuba,but it's Chuba.
Huh, I think it's Chuba.
Is it Chuba?
It is Chuba.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
But quarterback CJ Stroud, so he's been decent but
not great.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Did you boys do a fancy draft for the team this
year?
I can't remember we.
Did you boys do a fancy draftfor the team this year?
I can't remember.
We actually didn't.
Okay, every in the past on someof our overnight trips on the
way and they all got theirphones and were in different
vans.
The boys do a fancy draft and italways adds a unique dynamic to
practices and when, on Mondays,when we talk about how we did
over the weekend with theirfantasy teams.
(11:02):
But apparently you guys cansqueeze that in this year.
No, we didn't.
Oh well, we didn't have a trip.
Our trip was September.
Yeah, that's right.
So that's why you guys probablydidn't do it.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
You guys normally do it when we we did make a league,
we just never got to draft.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, it happens.
You have these great plans tohave these great drafts.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
That would be a teams you're starting to get into
some well, their teams aren'tvery good.
That's tough.
Yeah, that's the one thingabout in fantasy draft.
You're the number one overallpick.
That was me blessing and acurse, because it was, you know,
number one.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
We're gonna see you what 20, pick 20 or maybe pick
16, depending on the size ofyour league especially this year
.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
If you got number one , you'd draft mcafree that's
what I did he's out yeah that'swhat I did.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
I had the number one season, maybe drafted cmc way to
play it safe and smart um.
But you know, because I'm avery adept at drafting, my team
is holding the reins and solidsecond place right now.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I I'm really good at the late rounds okay, yeah,
there's a lot of hidden talentback there.
Let's talk about this team,though.
Let's head back to this team.
Brian, let let's go through theplayers on the teams.
Let's do one through foursingles and then one through
five doubles.
Who was on those teams thisyear?
Sure and Trevin.
If he forgets, you can jump in.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Okay, yeah, there's a lot of them.
So Sebastian Dozman's playingone, trevin Bethke is our fourth
singles player, and then,headlining the doubles lineup,
we've got Cody Skerman andBraden Goodwin at one, landon
Meyer and Teddy Major at two,lincoln Taylor and Brylon
McConnell at three, harper VanNord at four with Lucas Woodwick
(12:36):
, and then five doubles.
Rounding out the team is HughIrvine and Hudson Valengo.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
What's it been like for you this year hanging out
with this group of guys?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
This team is pretty special, oh is it really yeah?
Because we're all just friendson a team.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And so there's really no like.
It helps that we only graduatedtwo last year.
So most of these players haveplayed together for years and,
like Trev said, they're allreally good friends.
Like they hang out outside ofthe season, they do stuff after
practice together.
They go to eat almost everysingle day after practice.
Oh, do you really?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
What spots do you hit up?
Trevin, wingstop, chipotlemostly those are the good go-tos
, huh.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, with this group of guys who won the conference
titles yesterday, becausethere's individual ones too,
right?
Yep.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So we had a great day yesterday.
Um, we ended up winningconference titles at two singles
, three singles, four singles uhand five doubles, which really
solidified uh our place, uh, inthe tournament.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Without any of those matches, we wouldn't have had
the day we tried and it reallymatters, right, like all the
different levels, because onesingles wins.
Well, four doubles is justimportant.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
That's right.
Yeah, they're all worth thesame points in the finals.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So well, and tennis is a is a weird sport.
It's an individual sport, right.
But and my players know thisthat the team's the thing that
matters the most.
We can't do this by ourselves.
It takes every one of us doingour job, and doing it to the
best of our ability, to havegood days and to have big events
.
And if any of us drop the ball,it's just not possible,
especially in the OK Red.
(14:11):
It's just so competitive andthe boys really came through
yesterday.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
And part of that kind of team structure and doing it
all together is your coachingstaff.
I would put our tennis coachingstaff on both the boys and the
girls side up against anybody inthe state of Michigan.
Talk to us a little bit aboutyour assistant coaches and kind
of those folks that are reallyinstrumental in helping out.
Trev you at the fence inbetween matches.
(14:36):
Who's coming to talk to you?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
oh yeah, they're.
They are very good like mentalcoaches, because a lot of times
in tennis you know the mentalside of it it's hard to like
stay positive and stay focusedand they do a really good job of
getting our minds right for thematch.
Um, so they're just really goodand they have a lot of
knowledge.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Do you have coaches that you interact with more?
I know from time to time CoachMetz.
You guys kind of assigndifferent coaches to work with
individuals.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
It just kind of depends on the day and how the
players are playing.
We all have differentrelationships.
We all get along really well,but sometimes I need to be the
one that pulls Trev to the fenceand sometimes it's got to be
Coach Shop.
We've got a wealth of knowledge, but sometimes I need to be the
one that pulls Trev to thefence and sometimes it's gotta
be coach shop.
You know, we've got a wealth ofknowledge.
You know Lee shop, my assistantmy full-time assistant, you know
has been with me for four years.
Both of sons played for mebefore that.
(15:34):
So I've known him for 10 years.
I trust him more than I trustalmost anybody else in my life.
You know Dave Borski, who isanother assistant, has been with
us for a couple years now.
He was a high-level collegeplayer.
You know both his girls went toWest Ottawa.
Now they've graduated, so hevolunteers his time to work with
us.
And then obviously, having CoachSchwallier one of the best
coaches in the state as apart-time assistant, we get a
(15:57):
lot of benefit from that as well.
But you know, it just reallydepends on the day and what the
boys need.
A lot of benefit from that aswell, but you know it is really
depends on the day and what theboys need.
Coach shop does a very good jobof kind of getting them back to
neutral, uh, where I cansometimes rev them up a little
bit, uh, if they need it.
You know the the biggest thingfor us is just making sure that
we play one point at a time.
We stress that up and down thelineup to everybody you play a
point, you move on Uh, we can'tgo back and fix it If we did
(16:19):
something wrong, we can onlylook ahead, and we always try to
make those little improvementsthroughout the course of a match
or a day, to try to play ourbest tennis when it matters most
.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Yeah, I always enjoy being on the big matches.
There's a text thread thatconnects all the coaches.
Because we're at multiplelocations, I always really
appreciate being on thosebecause I get a little bit of
the insight, being on those,because I get a little bit of
the insight.
So I actually know I might notbe on site but I know whatever
(16:47):
that coach is going to tell theplayer at the fence during the
next change, like I'm in theloop as far as that goes.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Well, we kind of want to make sure that they're
getting a consistent message anddifferent players need
different things.
You know, like for Trev, forexample.
He's an incredibly talentedplayer, very, very skillful at
the game of tennis.
His ground strokes, yourvolleys, you know they're very
technically sound.
So a lot of it for him ismaking sure that he just plays
(17:15):
his game and doesn't let hisopponent dictate too much, and
just reminding him to be patient.
You know, if he can wear hisopponents down, we're in a
really good spot.
Just because he's sotechnically sound, people don't
like playing against him becausehe never misses and when you're
playing against a wall it canbe very frustrating and Trev
does a great job of frustratingpeople.
(17:35):
He just has to be patient.
Sometimes he'd be reminded tobe patient.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Trev and I think the coaching probably really came
into play with that EastKentwood at home.
Was it a week or two ago whenthey had that surprise player at
number two?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Can you tell us about ?
Speaker 4 (17:49):
that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
So I thought I was going to play the two singles
that they had last year and Ibeat that kid pretty easily, so
you know I wasn't thinking muchof it.
East kentwood brought in aforeign exchange student from
venezuela and that surprised mea little bit and I ended up
losing.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
so tight match, though I mean it was yeah very
tight match and you both wereplaying great tennis the player
from east kentwood's good likehe's legit actually uh, moved
into the States with his family,so he's going to be here a
while and we're going to see himagain.
And when they got off the buswe were kind of watching them
warm up and it didn't look likeit was supposed to look, so we
(18:33):
kind of had to figure that out,yeah that's an example, Like
you're saying, that's an exampleof one of those times where
mentally going in this is amassive surprise and you've got
like turn your mental aroundpretty fast.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, because if I know I'm playing someone good
throughout the day, like mymental state is different, right
, and so that just didn't happenthat day.
Yeah, and it was a good match.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Well, let's get to your injury.
I entitled this section it'scalled trevin and the injury so.
But to be honest with you, thisthis year it almost didn't
happen for you.
Just before I talked to yourdad last night, just before
Trials this summer, you wereplaying in a match at DeWitt
Tennis Center with a top playerfrom Ludington, and what
happened?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, so we were playing in a tight match and it
was on my serve, so I tried tohit a serve out wide, which is
basically just put a ton of spinon it, and I served up the ball
and basically my shoulder justwent with my arm or my racket
(19:35):
and it, like it like came out ofsocket and then I like finished
the stroke with my arm andthere was like crunching, oh boy
, in my shoulder.
It's not ideal If your shouldercrunches, no, and so immediately
something was wrong.
I mean, it wasn't like out ofplace, like I was still moving
it around, but Was the matchdone at that?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
point, or did you?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
keep playing we?
No, I immediately stopped.
Yeah, it was done, it was done,okay, okay.
So it was just not right.
I couldn't move it really.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Well, and this was the Friday before tryouts.
So, like Friday, saturday,sunday tryouts are Monday.
So this is like three daysbefore the season.
Trev had a fantastic off seasonand, at his full potential,
being able to play completelynormal, he was going to be right
in the mix to play one singles.
And we were kind of thinkingabout that and saying, yeah,
(20:30):
we're going to, we're going tohave a really solid singles
lineup with Trev at one or two,sebastian at one or two, and
then, you know, drew and Luke atthree and four, some
combination.
And then I get a phone callFriday afternoon saying Trev's
not great and that was notsomething we were anticipating.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, we were actually in Cincinnati watching
the Cincinnati Open tennis, ohyou went, so yeah, I always
wanted to go to that one.
I had to go with a sling onbecause we couldn't go to like
urgent care or anything becausewe had to leave.
Like I was playing at DeWittand then right after that I was
going to leave.
I was playing at DeWitt andthen right after that I was
going to leave.
So we couldn't do anything atthe time.
(21:06):
So we bought a sling and so mydad didn't even tell Coach Metz
for a couple days actually why.
What's the point?
I think it was like one day orso before trials yeah, well, I
knew.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
DeWitt got a hold of me and told me that something
happened.
Yeah, Adam told me and then Ijust DeWitt got ahold of me and
told me that something happened.
Yeah, adam told me Okay, andthen I just waited patiently to
hear from you, like maybe you'regoing to sleep on it, it was
going to feel better, maybe itwas nothing to worry about.
So I was just waiting to hearfrom you or your dad.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Well, it's funny that you say sleep on it, because I
couldn't sleep on it.
It actually felt a lot worsethe second day.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
What was that?
Like that kind of as the you're, you know you get injured and
you've got tryouts that arestarting on monday.
How long did it take before youkind of figured out, like what
you were going to be able to dothis season or if you were going
to be able to play at all?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
yeah.
So coming out of that injury, Ihonestly didn't think I was
going to be able to play becausejust the way my arm was, the
way it was moving, I washonestly didn't think I was
going to be able to play Becausejust the way my arm was, the
way it was moving, I didn'tthink there was a chance.
But after coming home fromCincinnati we went to the doctor
.
We got x-rays.
All the x-rays were fine, sothey thought it was just a
(22:17):
slapped hair or whatever in thelabrum.
And so I got my MRI and sureenough, there was like hair or
whatever in the labrum.
And so I got my MRI and sureenough, there was like two spots
where there were slapped hairs.
And so they recommended eitherlike surgery or rehab.
And we decided, well, surgerywould end the season but I would
most likely be ready in timefor baseball, but throughout the
(22:41):
winter and everything Iwouldn't be able to train.
We wanted to rehab.
That's what we did.
We went to Eric Hamilton.
The first day I went there hemade me move my arm a little bit
in places I didn't think werepossible.
He wanted me to serve, do myserve motion.
At that point my arm was justcompletely still.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I had a little PTSDd.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I didn't really I didn't really like move it that
much and so I looked at him likehe was crazy.
But we did some pt with somelittle stuff I was able to.
I was able to do it and I wasreally surprised like I was able
to do some exercises.
I feel like I right your arm.
You never would have put itthere yourself.
No, like I didn't think thatwas even possible.
(23:24):
Doing the stuff we did thefirst day and coming out of that
first session of PT, I wasfeeling great.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
That's awesome.
As somebody that has had foursurgeries on my right shoulder,
I can identify with hearingyou've got a slap tear.
I've had those good times.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
You've had four surgeries, Four surgeries yep,
well, let's not go down thatpath with Trevin.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
We're going to take the little rehab route.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Yes, yeah, and it's a big decision to make.
You didn't make it lightly.
But what I've learned, too, isyour dad really came alongside
you and you guys kind of workedtogether to forge a path forward
, right.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
You guys had some plans.
It was a big team effortbetween my coaches, my dad, Eric
Hamilton when is Eric Hamiltonat?
He's out of a CrossFit gym, Ithink rehab for performance.
I think it is Okay, all right.
We'll give a shout out to himfor sure.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, that's great.
So talking with Trevin's dad,you know, looking at our season,
going the rehab route,obviously the goal is for Trevin
to play and we decided that weneeded him to play in the
conference portion of the season.
So he was hitting, you know,the big limiting factor became
his serve.
(24:40):
And the serve is an importantpart of tennis because as a
singles player you have to do ithalf the time and if Trevin
can't serve, that's a problem.
So we decided that he was goingto serve underhand and see what
we could do, see what we couldget out of him.
So for that first month Trevreally didn't play at all.
He hit in, he worked on hisunderhand serve and probably
(25:02):
three weeks in he probablyplayed his first match against
Holland.
No no, who'd you play?
Jenison Played Jenison first.
Yep, okay.
And you won that match, correct?
Yes, yep.
And after that match we startedfeeling pretty good and saying,
okay, let's see what Trev cantolerate.
And over the next few weeks wegot him more and more experience
(25:22):
, practice, more matches underhis belt and by the time we got
to the conference portion of theseason, he had solidified
himself as our two singlesplayer through multiple
challenge matches and we decidedto run with it and Trav was
going to play two singles, nomatter what serve and underhand.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, and you've made some adjustments with some
other shots, so the underhandserve is really unique to see at
two singles.
So if you show up to one ofthese matches, you know whether
you're working your way throughthe doubles and you're walking
around and we I'll call it thebig courts.
Okay, so you get to one and two.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Well, my favorite part of that is when, when
Trev's warming up, he doesn'teven serve, like when they.
When they get to the part ofthe warmup and his opponent
starts serving Trev, just looksat him and says I'm good, I
don't need to serve.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, I don't want to show him it.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
So, no, no need to walk us through a little bit
about putting together anunderhand serve, but then talk
about some of the other shotsyou had to kind of leave behind
because they presented maybe alittle too much risk yeah, so
the underhand serve it.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
It has come a long way and I give thanks to adam at
adam ford, adam ford at hope.
He came to a practice and hehelped me with it.
Oh, that's nice of him, um, butstarting out I.
The problem with it was Icouldn't get it in, but it seems
easy but it got it got a lotbetter and I was able to compete
(26:42):
with it, but also the othershots I couldn't do was going
into the net overheads, whichwas a big part of my game really
.
I had to just tap it, Icouldn't—nothing overhead and my
volleys were just a little bithesitant because of the slot in
(27:02):
my arm.
So you know it was— they'vegotten a lot better, but it was
very hard for me to stop myself.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
What specifically did Adam work on you with to make
it a little bit better, make itsomething that at least you
weren't going to get pounded onevery time?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, he gave me some pointers and he gave me some
other options I could do.
So there's a top spin serve andthen an underhand serve like an
under spin serve.
Oh nice, that would mess withthe opponent a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
but yeah, really, he just gave me some pointers and
yeah just even building someconfidence in it, saying that,
yeah, this will work right, it'simportant.
You know, tennis is such amental game.
You know, feeling good aboutwhat you're doing, uh is so huge
.
And when, when trev wasstarting this journey, he didn't
feel great about it and we justhad to get in matches and see
(27:55):
what opponents would do andreally we haven't had anyone
that's really attacked it andmade it into a weakness.
You know, it's always a prettyneutral ball and once Trev gets
into a neutral rally, anythinggoes.
He's got just as good a chanceto win that point as anybody
else, and that's where we try toget him, and he's done a very
good job of capitalizing onthose opportunities and using
what he has and still showcasingthe real talent that he has as
(28:18):
a player.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
It wasn't necessarily there.
So mentally, your dad sharedwith me.
You've always been acompetitive player, going in and
playing competitive role, butat the beginning it was like I
didn't need to find a way to bepart of this team.
Can you speak to going?
(28:39):
Hey, I need to now be part ofthis team.
I need to fill this role atthis spot and just talk about
that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, so if I didn't play, that would mean everyone
would like move up in the lineup, and so I needed to be in a
position where the lineup wouldbe the same and I could play in
a spot where I had a chance towin at, so I wouldn't mess with
the team too much.
That's what I needed to do.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
That's a big thing, isn't it?
Coach?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well, and it was.
It speaks to Trev's character.
You know he wanted to do whatwas best for the team and from
the very beginning, I told himthat the best thing for the team
is that he was on the team.
You know, because we were tryingto figure out whether it was
rehab or surgery and you know Iwas going to respect whatever
decision they made as a family.
You know that's that's up tothem and I'd support him and I
know he's a multi-sport athleteso he's got other considerations
(29:27):
.
I wanted them to do what wasbest for them and they decided
on the rehab.
I said cool, then we're goingto try to get you in the lineup.
We want you to play and he'sstill good enough to be our
second singles player servingunderhand.
That's very difficult to dowith, as competitive as our
lineup is, and we were veryfortunate to still have him able
to play for us and to competeat the level that he did.
(29:47):
We were very fortunate to stillhave him able to play for us
and to compete at the level thathe did.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
And not only good enough to be our second singles
player, but good enough to winthe okay Red at that flight.
Correct, it was huge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, you know, we didn't know.
We didn't know how he was goingto stack up serving underhand
and once we got into ourconference matches he battled.
And you know we had some longmatches, we had some three
setters against really goodopponents and really good
schools, and Trev buckled downand did his job and we went into
the conference tournament as atwo seed and he ended up
outplaying his seed and being aflight champion at two singles.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Coach, when a player goes down, especially kind of
top of the singles lineup,there's a lot of decision making
that has to go into.
Ok, what are we going to do inthe meantime to make sure that
when we get to the end of theseason we have matches for
seating purposes conference,regional, that sort of thing?
Talk to us a little bit aboutthe decision process in bringing
(30:44):
up Miles Wilkinson to step inat two singles and feel things
out there early in the season.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Well, the most important thing is that your
your lineup is justifiable.
So you got to have a lineupthat, um, you know you've gone
through your challenge matchesand everybody's in the right
spot.
Once we knew that Trev wasgoing to be two, uh, cause he
played Sebastian, sebastian beathim.
You know we didn't have Trevplay every match, so I was very
fortunate.
Um, you know, our JV is a verystrong squad and we took our
(31:11):
best JV player, miles Wilkinson,to kind of step in and for some
of those matches and giveTrev's arm a break, because I
didn't want him playing two andthree matches in a day early on.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Yeah, and what's that ?
What's that do?
I guess moving forward, evenfor a player like Miles to have
some of that experience at thevarsity level, now right, and
then he goes back down and playsJV.
It probably slows matches downconsiderably.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
It does.
Yeah, he's definitely playingdifferent opponents.
He was playing every school'ssecond best player and he did
win a match.
He did.
He actually won a couplematches.
Oh, he won two, he did andhaving him able to step in for
Trev was huge for us.
He fit in with the team verywell and I'm expecting big
things from Miles next year as asenior.
I think he's going to be,hopefully, right in our varsity
(31:57):
lineup and I'm excited to seehim play for the full year,
wherever he ends up.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Trevon, what's really cool about sports?
Sometimes and when I get intomy dad advice moments that all
dads do when we talk sports,there's the yeah, this is a
disadvantage, but also when,when you have disadvantages,
also there's an advantage.
Your ground strokes this seasonhave been phenomenal.
As a tennis fan and watchingyou hit, Can you talk to me like
(32:24):
your backhand is so technicallysound and powerful?
How fun is it to hit that shot?
What's that like for you.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, well, coming out of the injury, the only shot
I could really hit was mybackhand a lot because obviously
my right arm.
So I did hit a lot of backhandsand you know it.
Just it stuck with me and I'mjust happy that I'm able to hit
those shots again.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
I joke around with Trev and tell him he's a surgeon
.
He slices up the court, he canput that ball wherever he wants.
One of our main points with hisgame is just moving people
around and making themuncomfortable.
If you're going to play Trev,you're going to run a whole
bunch and he's very good atputting that ball where the
opponent isn't or where theopponent doesn't want to be, and
(33:10):
he's a literal surgeon outthere.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Yeah, I think it's really tough as a if.
If someone's your opponent, youare trying to go to their
weakness, right, you're going todo that as a coach.
Oh, go to his back, don't go tohis backhand.
You're really good at that highbackhand.
To that, that high bouncebackhand, which is one of the
harder ones to hit you.
Pound that, bro yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
I mean, you're talking about yourself here, I
get it.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
But it's good.
It's just so much fun to watch,thank you thank you so okay we
go.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
We go through this junior season with an injury
right, and obviously we're goingto get really healthy in the
off season.
We're going to come back as asenior.
What do you think the impact isgoing to be?
Playing the way you've beenforced to this year as we move
into next year as a seniorcoming back, and now maybe you
have that overhand serve, butthere's other parts of your game
(34:01):
that have taken steps forward.
I mean, you're going to be.
You're going to be something todeal with next year.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, so I mean I can't serve, so my ground
strokes have gotten a lot better, everything in that category.
I just need to get my serveback, and hopefully I will, and
once that happens, then we'llsee what.
We'll see what the futurebrings, but for for you this
year.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
What have been some of the more rewarding matches
that you've played?
Where you've you've gone fromearly in the year to saying, hey
, I just want to be on the teamand I want to fill a role, cause
at that point you're like, well, I don't know if I can't
compete to.
All of a sudden you'recompeting and like, okay,
driving Beth is a little bitback right now.
I might not have this, I mightnot have that, but look out,
cause I'm coming at you.
What are a couple of matchesthat stand out to you where, all
(34:43):
of a sudden, those competitivejuices really started flowing
again?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
It's the third set, the third set matches that I've
played this year.
So I've played a third setagainst Hudsonville and Grand
Haven and I think another one Ican't remember.
But you know, it's just thosethird sets that Everybody else
is done almost.
There is just two tired guys onthe court who can outlast the
other one who can?
Hit one more ball than theother guy, and you know, that's
(35:09):
what I think about.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
That's where he thrives too.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Trev,you dropped the first sets in
both those matches, right?
Speaker 1 (35:21):
I think so yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
We had to battle back and get to a third set.
You had to figure it out veryquickly in that second set and
settle down and be like, okay,we got to battle to get to a
opportunity for us to win thismatch.
You know, if we don't figure itout, we're going to be done
here pretty quick.
And I think you do a reallygood job of rebounding and
working yourself back in whenthings haven't gone your way
(35:45):
early and just staying patientand staying composed.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
Coach, maybe talk to us about what this does from a
coaching standpoint, abouthaving a player that has had to
adjust and kind of find a way tocompete, and how that now
becomes part of the things thatare in your toolbox as a coach,
moving forward when you'readdressing future student
athletes.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I didn't think about this yet.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, I think it gives us something to fall back
on right.
If Trevin can do it, any of uscan do it.
You know he's been such ablessing to the team Just having
the boys see what he can do,knowing how hurt he was.
And you know, the first day ortwo of tryouts when Trev wasn't
there or he wasn't hitting, theboys were a little nervous about
(36:31):
the season.
They like that.
They confided in me that youknow we felt really good going
into the season.
But now we've lost one of our,one of our studs and it the
message was the same.
We haven't lost him, he's justout for a little bit.
So let's see what he canactually do.
And to see them rally aroundhim and cheer him on and see him
come out of this not only abetter player but a better
(36:53):
person, because he had to gothrough some adversity, was huge
for the team.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Yeah, and that's and that's the other part of it too
Right, you're not only losing aplayer that's going to play at
the top of your singles lineup,but as tight as the team is, as
close as the team is, you alsolose that that kind of teammate
piece right in that mix, alsolose that that kind of teammate
piece right in that mix.
And obviously he was around andwas going to be around.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
But it's a little bit different when you're a student
athlete on the court and havingthat game match experience as
opposed to just being abystander well, and they care
about him like like we said,they're all friends and to see
your friend go down and not beable to do the thing that he
loves and the thing that he'sreally good at, that's tough and
we had to come together as ateam and rally around Trev and
tell him that it was going to beokay Whether he was playing not
(37:38):
playing in the doubles on up inthe singles lineup.
We were going to support him inwhatever choice he made to try
to figure this out and Iactually think it made us closer
as a team.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
What had to happen yesterday for us to win that
conference championship going in?
What did we have to pull off?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, so Rockford was up 45.
They had 45 points in thetournament, we had 40.
And I was the last match on andso all the schools were around
watching the match.
I had no idea, but after thematch was done the guys just
flooded me and pushed me aroundand everything.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And I heard that shoulder.
Yeah, oh, my heart sank.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You have no idea.
Speaker 5 (38:18):
I.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I didn't like it at all, but they were.
They were saying that we won.
That was the match that won itfor us.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
How many points did you get for one in that match?
Six points, come on.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, match six points come on.
Yeah, if we don't come on iftrev takes second, we tie with
rockford in the tournament,which means they win the okay
red.
And because we we lost torockford in the dual match.
Uh, so we were in second placegoing into the tournament.
So we had to win the tournamentoutright.
When I I'm very thorough andwhen I did the math, uh, we were
slated to lose to rockford bytwo.
(38:50):
If we all played to our seedsand just did our job, we were
going to lose to Rock by twopoints.
We had to have guys step up,outplay their seeds and a lot of
things go right for us to endup winning the event outright,
to take first place.
And we had multiple flightsoutplay their seeds and everyone
else did their job and got theamount of points they were
(39:10):
supposed to get.
And Trev was one of thoseplayers that outplayed his seed
and he was supposed to takesecond place but he beat the
player that beat him earlier inthe season to solidify our
outright win, to give us theshare of the conference title.
Speaker 5 (39:21):
What other flights outplayed their seed yesterday,
just to give them some love aswell?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Absolutely so.
One doubles was slotted to be afour seed, no-transcript name
(39:56):
hudson.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
uh, vellinga, vellinga right hey, either, or I
say vellinga, my wife says saysuh, vellinga okay, uh, well,
your son, I'm not fightinganybody on it anymore.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Uh was on.
Was the other part of that fivedoubles team.
Who, uh, a Rockford fivedoubles who beat them previously
in the season they did, andthat was a nice little revenge
for them, especially as seniors,to go out on top One day.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Trev and Beth.
You don't know this yet, butyesterday is going to stand out
in your mind for the rest ofyour life.
You're sitting with oldest guy,second oldest guy, third oldest
guy.
But you get back, you grow up,you become a, an older person,
you have all that.
Uh.
One day uh, trevin, bethke,with a cranky old shoulder
hopefully not you get to tellyour kids how you won an okay
(40:41):
red conference championship withan underhand serve in division
one, and they'll be like yeah,sure you did well and go ahead
trevin yeah, they better believeit.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
believe it, I mean, they'll be proof.
They'll be proof.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
You got the receipt.
That's his first flightchampionship.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Congratulations, dude .
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That's awesome, super congratulations.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
This is a great sports story.
I'm so happy to sit down withyou guys.
We both are.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Well, he's been knocking on the door for years.
He's been knocking on the doorfor years.
He's made conference finals.
He's made regional finals Inour singles lineup.
In the OK Red, you're going toplay tough opponents, no matter
what, all the time.
He's been right there.
We've had close matches andyesterday he finally knocked
down the door to take his firstconference title at his flight
and I couldn't be prouder.
I was so happy for him to dothat and to get that monkey off
(41:28):
his back, and I can't wait tosee him play at the regional.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
You probably had a nice night last night at the
homecoming dance.
Huh yeah, it made the night.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Honestly.
Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
That's awesome.
So, this week another big weekof tennis here at West Ottawa
and as the AD I am always I takegreat pride in hosting state
level events.
I believe we have the bestfacilities in the state of
Michigan, particularly when itcomes to tennis 24 amazing
courts within a mile of eachother.
So we're ready to host onThursday.
(42:01):
Coach and I will be at the seedmeeting on Tuesday night.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yes we will.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
Talk to us a little bit about not only competing at
regionals, but maybe, trevv,talk to us about what it means
to you, as a student athlete, tobe able to host a regional on
our courts between the middleschool and the high school.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
It's just so much better that you get that.
It's that home field advantage,almost especially like during
school hours where people aremoving, walking across the North
and South building.
They'll go up to the fence andcheer you on and everything, and
so it's just a lot better.
It's the home field advantageand some of the most beautiful
courts in the OK Red.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
Absolutely Gorgeous.
Nobody can challenge us when itcomes to tennis facilities.
I firmly believe that.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
They're beautiful.
We're very fortunate.
I mean the community has haspoured in for years to, uh, you
know, give us, you know, very,very nice, uh, facilities to use
in a multitude of sports, andwe're just super lucky and
fortunate.
Uh, you know, I couldn't askfor a better, you know, middle
school and high school tenniscomplex.
You know, 24 post-tensionconcrete courts that are going
(43:08):
to last for 20 years.
Um, and, like Bill said, we'revery fortunate to be able to
host and it should be a good,fun, competitive day on Thursday
.
Speaker 5 (43:16):
The weather looks great, so we don't have to worry
about any of the delays andthat sort of thing.
Good, it's going to be a littlebit cooler in the 60s, low 70s.
Beautiful day for tennis, soreally looking forward to
Thursday.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
I hope for the team going in.
What are your thoughts, Trevin?
What do you guys hope to pulloff at regionals?
Speaker 1 (43:34):
I hope we win it.
The goal is to win it, sohopefully, if we do that, that
would be great, but if we don't,we should get enough points to
go to state to the state finalsand that would be also good.
But winning it is definitelyour goal.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
Yeah, this is a great time of year for tennis.
Just the spots now wherechampionships are being played,
for you know the stakes are high.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Well, I mean this team's built for that.
You know, I make the scheduleas hard as I can.
August is a gauntlet.
We play schools from the eastside.
We play top 10 teams.
I continue to try to make theschedule as hard as I can every
year, cause if you're going tobe the best, you got to beat the
best, and this team is ready.
I think it's going to be a verycompetitive event and we're
(44:15):
going to see what we can do.
You know the goal, like Trevsaid, is to take it down.
That's why we're here.
You know we don't suit up tolose.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
All right, this has been a really fun sit down.
We got a team that's reallymoving into the next week.
This week is really big.
You also got a great group ofparents, a great group of people
with organizing the food andalways that extra car for away
matches, right.
So we want to just thankeverybody for making their
contributions to Boys VarsityTennis here at West Ottawa.
(44:41):
Guys, we're going to see you onThursday.
We're going to keep our eyes onyou and we wish you all the
best moving forward.
Thanks for coming on,appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Thank you.
Thank you for having us so muchguys.
I was the last match on and so all the schools were
around watching the match.
I had no idea, but after thematch was done the guys just
flooded me and pushed me aroundand everything.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Right under that shoulder.
Yeah, oh, my heart sank.
You have no idea.
I didn't like it at all.
Keep going, trevor.
But they were saying that wewon.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
That was the match that won it for us, hey
everybody, this is RodneyValinga with the West Ottawa
High School Athletic Program andyou're listening to the 29.1
Podcast 29 sports, one team, theshow that brings you into the
lives of student-athletes,coaches and other faces in the
(00:45):
Panther sports community,bringing you the stories you
might otherwise never hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
You can't ever be surprised if you're expecting
something, but when you're notexpecting it, that's when it
gets good.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
Today we're joined by Coach Brian Metz and Junior
Trevin Bethke, who are comingoff a win at the OK Red
Championships this weekend thefourth conference title in a row
for the Panthers and Trevin'sfirst flight championship.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, it was a great day yesterday at granville.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
A lot had happened for this to go our way, and it
did coach brian metz and juniortrevin bethke coming up next on
the 29 one podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Let's get it well, hey, everybody, welcome back to
the 29.1 podcast.
I'm your host, rodney Vilenka.
I'm here with Panthers AthleticDirector, bill Kennedy, and we
have two members of the mostrecent conference championship
(01:56):
team here at West Ottawa sittingdown with us today.
Who is it?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'm Trevin Bethke and I'm Head Coach Brian Metz.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Two people who had a very good yesterday, to say the
least, a really good yesterday,yeah, so at conference at
Granville you guys took a shareof the conference championship
with Rockford, which we'll getinto a little bit.
But just in general, guys,welcome to the show.
It's great to have you on.
Appreciate it.
Happy to be here.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah, it's going to be reallycool.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Let's get to know you guys a little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
A lot of people know you well, but some don't.
Brian, you're a teacher atLakewood Elementary.
How long have you been teachinghere at West Ottawa?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Oh, I'm in year 12.
I'm at Lakewood and WaukeshaElementary.
A little gray in the beard nowI'm getting older.
I started Not at a few yearsand then I was at a Woodside
elementary for a couple and thisis year seven at Waka zoo in
Lakewood.
Uh, elementary PE loving it.
(02:50):
It's great, Right, and you'remarried and you have a daughter.
Right, I do Yep.
Uh, my daughter, uh, Amelia, isthree and a half.
Uh comes to a lot of the tennisstuff, which is great.
Uh, wife and I got married in2017.
So what is that year seven?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, right, yeah.
Seven Sure Sounds right, yeah,yeah.
You're not going to get introuble with us for getting your
anniversary wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
She's going to listen .
You're okay, all right.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Uh, after the those edits it came out real nice.
You got it right Perfectly.
Um, let's also do.
You've also been the varsityboys tennis coach here.
How long have you been doingthat?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
This is year seven as the boys head coach.
Before that I was the JV coachand I also coached the middle
school level a little bit.
Overall, this is year 10 thatI've been coaching for West
Ottawa.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Wow, it's been.
You've been here quite a while.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Yeah, coach started his varsity career the same year
that I came in as the athleticdirector.
So when I first met him he'slike hi, I'm Brian Metz, I'm
your varsity tennis coach.
This is my first year.
Did he flex on you?
No, I think he was a little bitintimidated when he walked into
my office the first time, forsure.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Because Bill didn't hire me.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Our previous athletic director did so.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
he had no idea what he was getting All right, so
that first meeting.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
If it goes awkward, you could lose your job.
Things can you know.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
You could lose your job, yeah, but I mean,
ultimately he's the steward ofone of our best programs.
Brian, you're always talkingabout the banner in the gym.
It's my favorite thing in thatgym.
We're getting close.
We're going to have to orderanother one soon because we have
accumulated so many conferencetitles in boys tennis that we're
(04:22):
going to run out of room on theconference title banner.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
One of my goals as a head coach is to be the first
program to hang a second banner.
Well, you're well on your way.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
We're close.
How many championships do youhave and can you break them down
from memory?
And 30 seconds is all you gotGo.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We've got four conference titles.
We've won three out of the lastfour regionals.
We've won in 2021, 22, 23, and24 for the conference and the
regional was 21.
We missed in 22.
We took second place 23 and 24.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
That's a coach who knows his stuff.
Everybody.
That was pretty impressive.
I think we probably barely gotpast 20 seconds there.
Trevin, so nice to have youhere today.
You're a junior and you'veplayed varsity tennis all three
years.
Right, that's correct.
What spots did you play whenyou got started?
What did you play when you werea freshman sophomore that type
of thing my freshman year.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I played three singles, so you played singles
right away pretty much.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah Well, you are a.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Bethke, we'll get to that in a minute.
Sophomore year.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Last year, sophomore year, last year I played two um
and now this year I'm playingtwo singles as well.
Right, and you, you know,you've always, always moved up
and done that really well.
You've come from a long line ofbethke family tennis players.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Uh, who's all played from your family yeah, so I have
, I have four siblings, andthey've all played tennis, so
taylor he's 27.
He played tennis in college too, for Michigan Tech Did he
really Okay.
Travis.
He's 24, I think now, and heplayed tennis for West Ottawa.
He played one singles and hedidn't play in college, but he
(05:56):
didn't want to, right If you'replaying one singles at West
Ottawa.
I'm sure you could?
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
They were both very good.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Right, sure you could .
Yeah, he was sure.
Yeah, they were both very good,right?
He just didn't end up playingin college.
Um, tylia, she played varsitytennis for your sister, my
sister, yep, and then shred andplayed varsity tennis all four
years um, I think he got up totwo singles.
Okay, he played a little clubat western michigan tennis, so
he's he's still sticking with ita little bit and you have an
uncle that plays too right,don't you?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
uh, you've you kind of sticking with it a little bit
.
And you have an uncle thatplays too right, don't you?
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You kind of learned from him a little bit.
My uncle, yeah, he played atPurdue, so that's a pretty good
school to play at, and we play alot.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
That's a good person to hit with Trev.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, a very good person to play with.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, you get a lot of knowledge from somebody that
age too right.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
He has a lot.
Actually, whenever he visits,we do go out and play matches
and they're pretty intense, I'dsay Cause.
I mean, if I beat him then Ican say I'm better, I've always
been better than him.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
So and you are the baby in the family.
We all know how sports goeswith babies in the family, right
, you get beat up on.
I did Something in tennis, tellus about that.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I mean when I was younger, obviously I would get
beat up on, but I feel like thatmade me better as a player.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Oh yeah, for sure Always does.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
That's why Sadie Vellenga is going to be a
superstar.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
It's funny my kids get mentioned on this podcast
and it feels like it's a lot ofpressure now.
But yeah, hopefully she'll be anice player.
Now I was talking to your dadyesterday and I'm like, hey, you
know how to try and learn howto play and all that stuff and
we learned a few differentthings, but one of the biggest
training grounds for you guys isyour family driveway.
That's right.
Yeah, go into detail about that.
(07:42):
Like, when you start doing that, what's the setup?
Like oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So we have like a couple of cars in our driveway
so we're playing tennis,swinging the racket around the
cars and everything.
Everybody's done this, but yeah, pretty much everybody's done
it.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
How many tennis balls do you have in your eavesdrop?
That's a side question, butkeep going.
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So as long as I can remember, I've been playing
tennis with either my brothersor my dad in the driveway.
And that's pretty much where Ilearned everything.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Right, you guys got the pop-up net.
Right, you guys would put thatup when you guys hit it up a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, we did.
I think it broke, but we didhave one.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
So you were way ahead of that pickleball curve right,
I mean back in the day you weredoing tennis.
Obviously Is your drivewayslanted.
Is it flat?
What's that?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
like yeah, it's got a little curve to it so it's not
like a flat surface.
Good for playing tennis.
Right, got those little familytricks, you got to pull off,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
One side's definitely better than the other.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Yeah, Take sprained their ankle.
You're also a big Tigers andLions fan.
Life's pretty good right now.
I know Bill's life is not sogood.
He's an Orioles fan.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
No, it did not.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Bill, how are you doing today?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
I'm fine today because we've got a big Ravens
game at one o'clock against theBengals, so morale is high.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, a couple days ago, when the Orioles got
eliminated, tigers took him out.
I was depressed.
Yeah, you're a little down.
I hadn't seen that too muchbefore.
Beard got a little more gray,yeah, but the Lions and Tigers
you're big fans of those guys,right?
Yes, just how do we think theTigers are going to do?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
They lost what 7 they did, I think, the next game
that they play Terry Skubal'spitching.
Yes, I think they have a verygood shot at winning that one.
I mean that guy is lights out,he is.
He'll win the Cy Young YepLions.
They have a bye this week.
It's bye week.
Yep, they had a very good lastgame.
(09:38):
Great last game versus theSeahawks on Monday Night.
Football Offense came alive, sothat was great to see Goff gets
that touchdown pass Didn't havea miss.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That was a good night Perfect game.
Yeah, it was pretty fun right.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, so you got a fantasy squad.
I do have a fantasy squad, yes,how's it going?
Not great.
I mean, I drafted Tyreek Hilland Cooper.
Cup Tua his quarterback gotinjured.
Cup Tua his quarterback gotinjured and so he's not been
getting the ball at all.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Cooper Cup got injured the first week after
dropping 32 fantasy points.
Yeah, which is that greatCooper Cup number from a couple
years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Right, he would always have big numbers, keep
going yeah, and so my runningbacks aren't very strong.
I have Travis Etienne and ZachMoss.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Well, I have both of them in my starting lineup today
, really yeah, and Zach Moss, Ihave both of them in my starting
lineup today.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Really.
Yeah, I also have Chuba Hubbard.
Is it Chuba?
I always liked saying Chuba,but it's Chuba.
Huh, I think it's Chuba.
Is it Chuba?
It is Chuba.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
But quarterback CJ Stroud, so he's been decent but
not great.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Did you boys do a fancy draft for the team this
year?
I can't remember we.
Did you boys do a fancy draftfor the team this year?
I can't remember.
We actually didn't.
Okay, every in the past on someof our overnight trips on the
way and they all got theirphones and were in different
vans.
The boys do a fancy draft and italways adds a unique dynamic to
practices and when, on Mondays,when we talk about how we did
over the weekend with theirfantasy teams.
(11:02):
But apparently you guys cansqueeze that in this year.
No, we didn't.
Oh well, we didn't have a trip.
Our trip was September.
Yeah, that's right.
So that's why you guys probablydidn't do it.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
You guys normally do it when we we did make a league,
we just never got to draft.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, it happens.
You have these great plans tohave these great drafts.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
That would be a teams you're starting to get into
some well, their teams aren'tvery good.
That's tough.
Yeah, that's the one thingabout in fantasy draft.
You're the number one overallpick.
That was me blessing and acurse, because it was, you know,
number one.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
We're gonna see you what 20, pick 20 or maybe pick
16, depending on the size ofyour league especially this year
.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
If you got number one , you'd draft mcafree that's
what I did he's out yeah that'swhat I did.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
I had the number one season, maybe drafted cmc way to
play it safe and smart um.
But you know, because I'm avery adept at drafting, my team
is holding the reins and solidsecond place right now.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I I'm really good at the late rounds okay, yeah,
there's a lot of hidden talentback there.
Let's talk about this team,though.
Let's head back to this team.
Brian, let let's go through theplayers on the teams.
Let's do one through foursingles and then one through
five doubles.
Who was on those teams thisyear?
Sure and Trevin.
If he forgets, you can jump in.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Okay, yeah, there's a lot of them.
So Sebastian Dozman's playingone, trevin Bethke is our fourth
singles player, and then,headlining the doubles lineup,
we've got Cody Skerman andBraden Goodwin at one, landon
Meyer and Teddy Major at two,lincoln Taylor and Brylon
McConnell at three, harper VanNord at four with Lucas Woodwick
(12:36):
, and then five doubles.
Rounding out the team is HughIrvine and Hudson Valengo.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
What's it been like for you this year hanging out
with this group of guys?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
This team is pretty special, oh is it really yeah?
Because we're all just friendson a team.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And so there's really no like.
It helps that we only graduatedtwo last year.
So most of these players haveplayed together for years and,
like Trev said, they're allreally good friends.
Like they hang out outside ofthe season, they do stuff after
practice together.
They go to eat almost everysingle day after practice.
Oh, do you really?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
What spots do you hit up?
Trevin, wingstop, chipotlemostly those are the good go-tos
, huh.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, with this group of guys who won the conference
titles yesterday, becausethere's individual ones too,
right?
Yep.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So we had a great day yesterday.
Um, we ended up winningconference titles at two singles
, three singles, four singles uhand five doubles, which really
solidified uh our place, uh, inthe tournament.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Without any of those matches, we wouldn't have had
the day we tried and it reallymatters, right, like all the
different levels, because onesingles wins.
Well, four doubles is justimportant.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
That's right.
Yeah, they're all worth thesame points in the finals.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So well, and tennis is a is a weird sport.
It's an individual sport, right.
But and my players know thisthat the team's the thing that
matters the most.
We can't do this by ourselves.
It takes every one of us doingour job, and doing it to the
best of our ability, to havegood days and to have big events
.
And if any of us drop the ball,it's just not possible,
especially in the OK Red.
(14:11):
It's just so competitive andthe boys really came through
yesterday.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
And part of that kind of team structure and doing it
all together is your coachingstaff.
I would put our tennis coachingstaff on both the boys and the
girls side up against anybody inthe state of Michigan.
Talk to us a little bit aboutyour assistant coaches and kind
of those folks that are reallyinstrumental in helping out.
Trev you at the fence inbetween matches.
(14:36):
Who's coming to talk to you?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
oh yeah, they're.
They are very good like mentalcoaches, because a lot of times
in tennis you know the mentalside of it it's hard to like
stay positive and stay focusedand they do a really good job of
getting our minds right for thematch.
Um, so they're just really goodand they have a lot of
knowledge.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Do you have coaches that you interact with more?
I know from time to time CoachMetz.
You guys kind of assigndifferent coaches to work with
individuals.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
It just kind of depends on the day and how the
players are playing.
We all have differentrelationships.
We all get along really well,but sometimes I need to be the
one that pulls Trev to the fenceand sometimes it's got to be
Coach Shop.
We've got a wealth of knowledge, but sometimes I need to be the
one that pulls Trev to thefence and sometimes it's gotta
be coach shop.
You know, we've got a wealth ofknowledge.
You know Lee shop, my assistantmy full-time assistant, you know
has been with me for four years.
Both of sons played for mebefore that.
(15:34):
So I've known him for 10 years.
I trust him more than I trustalmost anybody else in my life.
You know Dave Borski, who isanother assistant, has been with
us for a couple years now.
He was a high-level collegeplayer.
You know both his girls went toWest Ottawa.
Now they've graduated, so hevolunteers his time to work with
us.
And then obviously, having CoachSchwallier one of the best
coaches in the state as apart-time assistant, we get a
(15:57):
lot of benefit from that as well.
But you know, it just reallydepends on the day and what the
boys need.
A lot of benefit from that aswell, but you know it is really
depends on the day and what theboys need.
Coach shop does a very good jobof kind of getting them back to
neutral, uh, where I cansometimes rev them up a little
bit, uh, if they need it.
You know the the biggest thingfor us is just making sure that
we play one point at a time.
We stress that up and down thelineup to everybody you play a
point, you move on Uh, we can'tgo back and fix it If we did
(16:19):
something wrong, we can onlylook ahead, and we always try to
make those little improvementsthroughout the course of a match
or a day, to try to play ourbest tennis when it matters most
.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Yeah, I always enjoy being on the big matches.
There's a text thread thatconnects all the coaches.
Because we're at multiplelocations, I always really
appreciate being on thosebecause I get a little bit of
the insight, being on those,because I get a little bit of
the insight.
So I actually know I might notbe on site but I know whatever
(16:47):
that coach is going to tell theplayer at the fence during the
next change, like I'm in theloop as far as that goes.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Well, we kind of want to make sure that they're
getting a consistent message anddifferent players need
different things.
You know, like for Trev, forexample.
He's an incredibly talentedplayer, very, very skillful at
the game of tennis.
His ground strokes, yourvolleys, you know they're very
technically sound.
So a lot of it for him ismaking sure that he just plays
(17:15):
his game and doesn't let hisopponent dictate too much, and
just reminding him to be patient.
You know, if he can wear hisopponents down, we're in a
really good spot.
Just because he's sotechnically sound, people don't
like playing against him becausehe never misses and when you're
playing against a wall it canbe very frustrating and Trev
does a great job of frustratingpeople.
(17:35):
He just has to be patient.
Sometimes he'd be reminded tobe patient.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Trev and I think the coaching probably really came
into play with that EastKentwood at home.
Was it a week or two ago whenthey had that surprise player at
number two?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Can you tell us about ?
Speaker 4 (17:49):
that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
So I thought I was going to play the two singles
that they had last year and Ibeat that kid pretty easily, so
you know I wasn't thinking muchof it.
East kentwood brought in aforeign exchange student from
venezuela and that surprised mea little bit and I ended up
losing.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
so tight match, though I mean it was yeah very
tight match and you both wereplaying great tennis the player
from east kentwood's good likehe's legit actually uh, moved
into the States with his family,so he's going to be here a
while and we're going to see himagain.
And when they got off the buswe were kind of watching them
warm up and it didn't look likeit was supposed to look, so we
(18:33):
kind of had to figure that out,yeah that's an example, Like
you're saying, that's an exampleof one of those times where
mentally going in this is amassive surprise and you've got
like turn your mental aroundpretty fast.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, because if I know I'm playing someone good
throughout the day, like mymental state is different, right
, and so that just didn't happenthat day.
Yeah, and it was a good match.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Well, let's get to your injury.
I entitled this section it'scalled trevin and the injury so.
But to be honest with you, thisthis year it almost didn't
happen for you.
Just before I talked to yourdad last night, just before
Trials this summer, you wereplaying in a match at DeWitt
Tennis Center with a top playerfrom Ludington, and what
happened?
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, so we were playing in a tight match and it
was on my serve, so I tried tohit a serve out wide, which is
basically just put a ton of spinon it, and I served up the ball
and basically my shoulder justwent with my arm or my racket
(19:35):
and it, like it like came out ofsocket and then I like finished
the stroke with my arm andthere was like crunching, oh boy
, in my shoulder.
It's not ideal If your shouldercrunches, no, and so immediately
something was wrong.
I mean, it wasn't like out ofplace, like I was still moving
it around, but Was the matchdone at that?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
point, or did you?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
keep playing we?
No, I immediately stopped.
Yeah, it was done, it was done,okay, okay.
So it was just not right.
I couldn't move it really.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Well, and this was the Friday before tryouts.
So, like Friday, saturday,sunday tryouts are Monday.
So this is like three daysbefore the season.
Trev had a fantastic off seasonand, at his full potential,
being able to play completelynormal, he was going to be right
in the mix to play one singles.
And we were kind of thinkingabout that and saying, yeah,
(20:30):
we're going to, we're going tohave a really solid singles
lineup with Trev at one or two,sebastian at one or two, and
then, you know, drew and Luke atthree and four, some
combination.
And then I get a phone callFriday afternoon saying Trev's
not great and that was notsomething we were anticipating.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, we were actually in Cincinnati watching
the Cincinnati Open tennis, ohyou went, so yeah, I always
wanted to go to that one.
I had to go with a sling onbecause we couldn't go to like
urgent care or anything becausewe had to leave.
Like I was playing at DeWittand then right after that I was
going to leave.
I was playing at DeWitt andthen right after that I was
going to leave.
So we couldn't do anything atthe time.
(21:06):
So we bought a sling and so mydad didn't even tell Coach Metz
for a couple days actually why.
What's the point?
I think it was like one day orso before trials yeah, well, I
knew.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
DeWitt got a hold of me and told me that something
happened.
Yeah, Adam told me and then Ijust DeWitt got ahold of me and
told me that something happened.
Yeah, adam told me Okay, andthen I just waited patiently to
hear from you, like maybe you'regoing to sleep on it, it was
going to feel better, maybe itwas nothing to worry about.
So I was just waiting to hearfrom you or your dad.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Well, it's funny that you say sleep on it, because I
couldn't sleep on it.
It actually felt a lot worsethe second day.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
What was that?
Like that kind of as the you're, you know you get injured and
you've got tryouts that arestarting on monday.
How long did it take before youkind of figured out, like what
you were going to be able to dothis season or if you were going
to be able to play at all?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
yeah.
So coming out of that injury, Ihonestly didn't think I was
going to be able to play becausejust the way my arm was, the
way it was moving, I washonestly didn't think I was
going to be able to play Becausejust the way my arm was, the
way it was moving, I didn'tthink there was a chance.
But after coming home fromCincinnati we went to the doctor
.
We got x-rays.
All the x-rays were fine, sothey thought it was just a
(22:17):
slapped hair or whatever in thelabrum.
And so I got my MRI and sureenough, there was like hair or
whatever in the labrum.
And so I got my MRI and sureenough, there was like two spots
where there were slapped hairs.
And so they recommended eitherlike surgery or rehab.
And we decided, well, surgerywould end the season but I would
most likely be ready in timefor baseball, but throughout the
(22:41):
winter and everything Iwouldn't be able to train.
We wanted to rehab.
That's what we did.
We went to Eric Hamilton.
The first day I went there hemade me move my arm a little bit
in places I didn't think werepossible.
He wanted me to serve, do myserve motion.
At that point my arm was justcompletely still.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I had a little PTSDd.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I didn't really I didn't really like move it that
much and so I looked at him likehe was crazy.
But we did some pt with somelittle stuff I was able to.
I was able to do it and I wasreally surprised like I was able
to do some exercises.
I feel like I right your arm.
You never would have put itthere yourself.
No, like I didn't think thatwas even possible.
(23:24):
Doing the stuff we did thefirst day and coming out of that
first session of PT, I wasfeeling great.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
That's awesome.
As somebody that has had foursurgeries on my right shoulder,
I can identify with hearingyou've got a slap tear.
I've had those good times.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
You've had four surgeries, Four surgeries yep,
well, let's not go down thatpath with Trevin.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
We're going to take the little rehab route.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Yes, yeah, and it's a big decision to make.
You didn't make it lightly.
But what I've learned, too, isyour dad really came alongside
you and you guys kind of workedtogether to forge a path forward
, right.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
You guys had some plans.
It was a big team effortbetween my coaches, my dad, Eric
Hamilton when is Eric Hamiltonat?
He's out of a CrossFit gym, Ithink rehab for performance.
I think it is Okay, all right.
We'll give a shout out to himfor sure.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, that's great.
So talking with Trevin's dad,you know, looking at our season,
going the rehab route,obviously the goal is for Trevin
to play and we decided that weneeded him to play in the
conference portion of the season.
So he was hitting, you know,the big limiting factor became
his serve.
(24:40):
And the serve is an importantpart of tennis because as a
singles player you have to do ithalf the time and if Trevin
can't serve, that's a problem.
So we decided that he was goingto serve underhand and see what
we could do, see what we couldget out of him.
So for that first month Trevreally didn't play at all.
He hit in, he worked on hisunderhand serve and probably
(25:02):
three weeks in he probablyplayed his first match against
Holland.
No no, who'd you play?
Jenison Played Jenison first.
Yep, okay.
And you won that match, correct?
Yes, yep.
And after that match we startedfeeling pretty good and saying,
okay, let's see what Trev cantolerate.
And over the next few weeks wegot him more and more experience
(25:22):
, practice, more matches underhis belt and by the time we got
to the conference portion of theseason, he had solidified
himself as our two singlesplayer through multiple
challenge matches and we decidedto run with it and Trav was
going to play two singles, nomatter what serve and underhand.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, and you've made some adjustments with some
other shots, so the underhandserve is really unique to see at
two singles.
So if you show up to one ofthese matches, you know whether
you're working your way throughthe doubles and you're walking
around and we I'll call it thebig courts.
Okay, so you get to one and two.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Well, my favorite part of that is when, when
Trev's warming up, he doesn'teven serve, like when they.
When they get to the part ofthe warmup and his opponent
starts serving Trev, just looksat him and says I'm good, I
don't need to serve.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, I don't want to show him it.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
So, no, no need to walk us through a little bit
about putting together anunderhand serve, but then talk
about some of the other shotsyou had to kind of leave behind
because they presented maybe alittle too much risk yeah, so
the underhand serve it.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
It has come a long way and I give thanks to adam at
adam ford, adam ford at hope.
He came to a practice and hehelped me with it.
Oh, that's nice of him, um, butstarting out I.
The problem with it was Icouldn't get it in, but it seems
easy but it got it got a lotbetter and I was able to compete
(26:42):
with it, but also the othershots I couldn't do was going
into the net overheads, whichwas a big part of my game really
.
I had to just tap it, Icouldn't—nothing overhead and my
volleys were just a little bithesitant because of the slot in
(27:02):
my arm.
So you know it was— they'vegotten a lot better, but it was
very hard for me to stop myself.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
What specifically did Adam work on you with to make
it a little bit better, make itsomething that at least you
weren't going to get pounded onevery time?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, he gave me some pointers and he gave me some
other options I could do.
So there's a top spin serve andthen an underhand serve like an
under spin serve.
Oh nice, that would mess withthe opponent a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
but yeah, really, he just gave me some pointers and
yeah just even building someconfidence in it, saying that,
yeah, this will work right, it'simportant.
You know, tennis is such amental game.
You know, feeling good aboutwhat you're doing, uh is so huge
.
And when, when trev wasstarting this journey, he didn't
feel great about it and we justhad to get in matches and see
(27:55):
what opponents would do andreally we haven't had anyone
that's really attacked it andmade it into a weakness.
You know, it's always a prettyneutral ball and once Trev gets
into a neutral rally, anythinggoes.
He's got just as good a chanceto win that point as anybody
else, and that's where we try toget him, and he's done a very
good job of capitalizing onthose opportunities and using
what he has and still showcasingthe real talent that he has as
(28:18):
a player.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
It wasn't necessarily there.
So mentally, your dad sharedwith me.
You've always been acompetitive player, going in and
playing competitive role, butat the beginning it was like I
didn't need to find a way to bepart of this team.
Can you speak to going?
(28:39):
Hey, I need to now be part ofthis team.
I need to fill this role atthis spot and just talk about
that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, so if I didn't play, that would mean everyone
would like move up in the lineup, and so I needed to be in a
position where the lineup wouldbe the same and I could play in
a spot where I had a chance towin at, so I wouldn't mess with
the team too much.
That's what I needed to do.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
That's a big thing, isn't it?
Coach?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well, and it was.
It speaks to Trev's character.
You know he wanted to do whatwas best for the team and from
the very beginning, I told himthat the best thing for the team
is that he was on the team.
You know, because we were tryingto figure out whether it was
rehab or surgery and you know Iwas going to respect whatever
decision they made as a family.
You know that's that's up tothem and I'd support him and I
know he's a multi-sport athleteso he's got other considerations
(29:27):
.
I wanted them to do what wasbest for them and they decided
on the rehab.
I said cool, then we're goingto try to get you in the lineup.
We want you to play and he'sstill good enough to be our
second singles player servingunderhand.
That's very difficult to dowith, as competitive as our
lineup is, and we were veryfortunate to still have him able
to play for us and to competeat the level that he did.
(29:47):
We were very fortunate to stillhave him able to play for us
and to compete at the level thathe did.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
And not only good enough to be our second singles
player, but good enough to winthe okay Red at that flight.
Correct, it was huge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, you know, we didn't know.
We didn't know how he was goingto stack up serving underhand
and once we got into ourconference matches he battled.
And you know we had some longmatches, we had some three
setters against really goodopponents and really good
schools, and Trev buckled downand did his job and we went into
the conference tournament as atwo seed and he ended up
outplaying his seed and being aflight champion at two singles.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Coach, when a player goes down, especially kind of
top of the singles lineup,there's a lot of decision making
that has to go into.
Ok, what are we going to do inthe meantime to make sure that
when we get to the end of theseason we have matches for
seating purposes conference,regional, that sort of thing?
Talk to us a little bit aboutthe decision process in bringing
(30:44):
up Miles Wilkinson to step inat two singles and feel things
out there early in the season.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Well, the most important thing is that your
your lineup is justifiable.
So you got to have a lineupthat, um, you know you've gone
through your challenge matchesand everybody's in the right
spot.
Once we knew that Trev wasgoing to be two, uh, cause he
played Sebastian, sebastian beathim.
You know we didn't have Trevplay every match, so I was very
fortunate.
Um, you know, our JV is a verystrong squad and we took our
(31:11):
best JV player, miles Wilkinson,to kind of step in and for some
of those matches and giveTrev's arm a break, because I
didn't want him playing two andthree matches in a day early on.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Yeah, and what's that ?
What's that do?
I guess moving forward, evenfor a player like Miles to have
some of that experience at thevarsity level, now right, and
then he goes back down and playsJV.
It probably slows matches downconsiderably.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
It does.
Yeah, he's definitely playingdifferent opponents.
He was playing every school'ssecond best player and he did
win a match.
He did.
He actually won a couplematches.
Oh, he won two, he did andhaving him able to step in for
Trev was huge for us.
He fit in with the team verywell and I'm expecting big
things from Miles next year as asenior.
I think he's going to be,hopefully, right in our varsity
(31:57):
lineup and I'm excited to seehim play for the full year,
wherever he ends up.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Trevon, what's really cool about sports?
Sometimes and when I get intomy dad advice moments that all
dads do when we talk sports,there's the yeah, this is a
disadvantage, but also when,when you have disadvantages,
also there's an advantage.
Your ground strokes this seasonhave been phenomenal.
As a tennis fan and watchingyou hit, Can you talk to me like
(32:24):
your backhand is so technicallysound and powerful?
How fun is it to hit that shot?
What's that like for you.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, well, coming out of the injury, the only shot
I could really hit was mybackhand a lot because obviously
my right arm.
So I did hit a lot of backhandsand you know it.
Just it stuck with me and I'mjust happy that I'm able to hit
those shots again.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
I joke around with Trev and tell him he's a surgeon
.
He slices up the court, he canput that ball wherever he wants.
One of our main points with hisgame is just moving people
around and making themuncomfortable.
If you're going to play Trev,you're going to run a whole
bunch and he's very good atputting that ball where the
opponent isn't or where theopponent doesn't want to be, and
(33:10):
he's a literal surgeon outthere.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Yeah, I think it's really tough as a if.
If someone's your opponent, youare trying to go to their
weakness, right, you're going todo that as a coach.
Oh, go to his back, don't go tohis backhand.
You're really good at that highbackhand.
To that, that high bouncebackhand, which is one of the
harder ones to hit you.
Pound that, bro yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
I mean, you're talking about yourself here, I
get it.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
But it's good.
It's just so much fun to watch,thank you thank you so okay we
go.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
We go through this junior season with an injury
right, and obviously we're goingto get really healthy in the
off season.
We're going to come back as asenior.
What do you think the impact isgoing to be?
Playing the way you've beenforced to this year as we move
into next year as a seniorcoming back, and now maybe you
have that overhand serve, butthere's other parts of your game
(34:01):
that have taken steps forward.
I mean, you're going to be.
You're going to be something todeal with next year.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, so I mean I can't serve, so my ground
strokes have gotten a lot better, everything in that category.
I just need to get my serveback, and hopefully I will, and
once that happens, then we'llsee what.
We'll see what the futurebrings, but for for you this
year.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
What have been some of the more rewarding matches
that you've played?
Where you've you've gone fromearly in the year to saying, hey
, I just want to be on the teamand I want to fill a role, cause
at that point you're like, well, I don't know if I can't
compete to.
All of a sudden you'recompeting and like, okay,
driving Beth is a little bitback right now.
I might not have this, I mightnot have that, but look out,
cause I'm coming at you.
What are a couple of matchesthat stand out to you where, all
(34:43):
of a sudden, those competitivejuices really started flowing
again?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
It's the third set, the third set matches that I've
played this year.
So I've played a third setagainst Hudsonville and Grand
Haven and I think another one Ican't remember.
But you know, it's just thosethird sets that Everybody else
is done almost.
There is just two tired guys onthe court who can outlast the
other one who can?
Hit one more ball than theother guy, and you know, that's
(35:09):
what I think about.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
That's where he thrives too.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Trev,you dropped the first sets in
both those matches, right?
Speaker 1 (35:21):
I think so yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
We had to battle back and get to a third set.
You had to figure it out veryquickly in that second set and
settle down and be like, okay,we got to battle to get to a
opportunity for us to win thismatch.
You know, if we don't figure itout, we're going to be done
here pretty quick.
And I think you do a reallygood job of rebounding and
working yourself back in whenthings haven't gone your way
(35:45):
early and just staying patientand staying composed.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
Coach, maybe talk to us about what this does from a
coaching standpoint, abouthaving a player that has had to
adjust and kind of find a way tocompete, and how that now
becomes part of the things thatare in your toolbox as a coach,
moving forward when you'readdressing future student
athletes.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I didn't think about this yet.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, I think it gives us something to fall back
on right.
If Trevin can do it, any of uscan do it.
You know he's been such ablessing to the team Just having
the boys see what he can do,knowing how hurt he was.
And you know, the first day ortwo of tryouts when Trev wasn't
there or he wasn't hitting, theboys were a little nervous about
(36:31):
the season.
They like that.
They confided in me that youknow we felt really good going
into the season.
But now we've lost one of our,one of our studs and it the
message was the same.
We haven't lost him, he's justout for a little bit.
So let's see what he canactually do.
And to see them rally aroundhim and cheer him on and see him
come out of this not only abetter player but a better
(36:53):
person, because he had to gothrough some adversity, was huge
for the team.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Yeah, and that's and that's the other part of it too
Right, you're not only losing aplayer that's going to play at
the top of your singles lineup,but as tight as the team is, as
close as the team is, you alsolose that that kind of teammate
piece right in that mix, alsolose that that kind of teammate
piece right in that mix.
And obviously he was around andwas going to be around.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
But it's a little bit different when you're a student
athlete on the court and havingthat game match experience as
opposed to just being abystander well, and they care
about him like like we said,they're all friends and to see
your friend go down and not beable to do the thing that he
loves and the thing that he'sreally good at, that's tough and
we had to come together as ateam and rally around Trev and
tell him that it was going to beokay Whether he was playing not
(37:38):
playing in the doubles on up inthe singles lineup.
We were going to support him inwhatever choice he made to try
to figure this out and Iactually think it made us closer
as a team.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
What had to happen yesterday for us to win that
conference championship going in?
What did we have to pull off?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, so Rockford was up 45.
They had 45 points in thetournament, we had 40.
And I was the last match on andso all the schools were around
watching the match.
I had no idea, but after thematch was done the guys just
flooded me and pushed me aroundand everything.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And I heard that shoulder.
Yeah, oh, my heart sank.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You have no idea.
Speaker 5 (38:18):
I.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I didn't like it at all, but they were.
They were saying that we won.
That was the match that won itfor us.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
How many points did you get for one in that match?
Six points, come on.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, match six points come on.
Yeah, if we don't come on iftrev takes second, we tie with
rockford in the tournament,which means they win the okay
red.
And because we we lost torockford in the dual match.
Uh, so we were in second placegoing into the tournament.
So we had to win the tournamentoutright.
When I I'm very thorough andwhen I did the math, uh, we were
slated to lose to rockford bytwo.
(38:50):
If we all played to our seedsand just did our job, we were
going to lose to Rock by twopoints.
We had to have guys step up,outplay their seeds and a lot of
things go right for us to endup winning the event outright,
to take first place.
And we had multiple flightsoutplay their seeds and everyone
else did their job and got theamount of points they were
(39:10):
supposed to get.
And Trev was one of thoseplayers that outplayed his seed
and he was supposed to takesecond place but he beat the
player that beat him earlier inthe season to solidify our
outright win, to give us theshare of the conference title.
Speaker 5 (39:21):
What other flights outplayed their seed yesterday,
just to give them some love aswell?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Absolutely so.
One doubles was slotted to be afour seed, no-transcript name
(39:56):
hudson.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
uh, vellinga, vellinga right hey, either, or I
say vellinga, my wife says saysuh, vellinga okay, uh, well,
your son, I'm not fightinganybody on it anymore.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Uh was on.
Was the other part of that fivedoubles team.
Who, uh, a Rockford fivedoubles who beat them previously
in the season they did, andthat was a nice little revenge
for them, especially as seniors,to go out on top One day.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Trev and Beth.
You don't know this yet, butyesterday is going to stand out
in your mind for the rest ofyour life.
You're sitting with oldest guy,second oldest guy, third oldest
guy.
But you get back, you grow up,you become a, an older person,
you have all that.
Uh.
One day uh, trevin, bethke,with a cranky old shoulder
hopefully not you get to tellyour kids how you won an okay
(40:41):
red conference championship withan underhand serve in division
one, and they'll be like yeah,sure you did well and go ahead
trevin yeah, they better believeit.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
believe it, I mean, they'll be proof.
They'll be proof.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
You got the receipt.
That's his first flightchampionship.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Congratulations, dude .
Speaker 2 (40:59):
That's awesome, super congratulations.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
This is a great sports story.
I'm so happy to sit down withyou guys.
We both are.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Well, he's been knocking on the door for years.
He's been knocking on the doorfor years.
He's made conference finals.
He's made regional finals Inour singles lineup.
In the OK Red, you're going toplay tough opponents, no matter
what, all the time.
He's been right there.
We've had close matches andyesterday he finally knocked
down the door to take his firstconference title at his flight
and I couldn't be prouder.
I was so happy for him to dothat and to get that monkey off
(41:28):
his back, and I can't wait tosee him play at the regional.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
You probably had a nice night last night at the
homecoming dance.
Huh yeah, it made the night.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Honestly.
Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:38):
That's awesome.
So, this week another big weekof tennis here at West Ottawa
and as the AD I am always I takegreat pride in hosting state
level events.
I believe we have the bestfacilities in the state of
Michigan, particularly when itcomes to tennis 24 amazing
courts within a mile of eachother.
So we're ready to host onThursday.
(42:01):
Coach and I will be at the seedmeeting on Tuesday night.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yes we will.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
Talk to us a little bit about not only competing at
regionals, but maybe, trevv,talk to us about what it means
to you, as a student athlete, tobe able to host a regional on
our courts between the middleschool and the high school.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
It's just so much better that you get that.
It's that home field advantage,almost especially like during
school hours where people aremoving, walking across the North
and South building.
They'll go up to the fence andcheer you on and everything, and
so it's just a lot better.
It's the home field advantageand some of the most beautiful
courts in the OK Red.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
Absolutely Gorgeous.
Nobody can challenge us when itcomes to tennis facilities.
I firmly believe that.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
They're beautiful.
We're very fortunate.
I mean the community has haspoured in for years to, uh, you
know, give us, you know, very,very nice, uh, facilities to use
in a multitude of sports, andwe're just super lucky and
fortunate.
Uh, you know, I couldn't askfor a better, you know, middle
school and high school tenniscomplex.
You know, 24 post-tensionconcrete courts that are going
(43:08):
to last for 20 years.
Um, and, like Bill said, we'revery fortunate to be able to
host and it should be a good,fun, competitive day on Thursday
.
Speaker 5 (43:16):
The weather looks great, so we don't have to worry
about any of the delays andthat sort of thing.
Good, it's going to be a littlebit cooler in the 60s, low 70s.
Beautiful day for tennis, soreally looking forward to
Thursday.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
I hope for the team going in.
What are your thoughts, Trevin?
What do you guys hope to pulloff at regionals?
Speaker 1 (43:34):
I hope we win it.
The goal is to win it, sohopefully, if we do that, that
would be great, but if we don't,we should get enough points to
go to state to the state finalsand that would be also good.
But winning it is definitelyour goal.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
Yeah, this is a great time of year for tennis.
Just the spots now wherechampionships are being played,
for you know the stakes are high.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Well, I mean this team's built for that.
You know, I make the scheduleas hard as I can.
August is a gauntlet.
We play schools from the eastside.
We play top 10 teams.
I continue to try to make theschedule as hard as I can every
year, cause if you're going tobe the best, you got to beat the
best, and this team is ready.
I think it's going to be a verycompetitive event and we're
(44:15):
going to see what we can do.
You know the goal, like Trevsaid, is to take it down.
That's why we're here.
You know we don't suit up tolose.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
All right, this has been a really fun sit down.
We got a team that's reallymoving into the next week.
This week is really big.
You also got a great group ofparents, a great group of people
with organizing the food andalways that extra car for away
matches, right.
So we want to just thankeverybody for making their
contributions to Boys VarsityTennis here at West Ottawa.
(44:41):
Guys, we're going to see you onThursday.
We're going to keep our eyes onyou and we wish you all the
best moving forward.
Thanks for coming on,appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Thank you.
Thank you for having us so muchguys.
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