Welcome!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog about the Hopkins Royals Boys' Tennis team. My name is Michael Fields, and I'll be chronicling the team's season from an inside perspective. This is my sixth season as a member of the varsity tennis team.  My co-captain, Ryan Erickson, and I are looking to cap our high school tennis careers with a successful season.

For the last five years, Hopkins tennis had been synonymous  with Ali Barnett (after her recent marriage, Ali King). Ali was our head coach, and we loved having her, but due to a new addition to her family, she will not be coaching us this year. Her son Levi was born this fall, and Mr. Ken Novak will be taking over as coach for this season.

Despite his impressive basketball teams and recent state championships, Coach Novak has a few strong connections to tennis. First of all, his two sons, Andy, a sophomore, and Kenny, a freshman, have been on the team for three years. He also coached the Hopkins girls to a state championship in 1994.  Among the members of that team was a certain seventh-grader: Ali Barnett.

Ryan is coming off an undefeated season, in which he won every match at #2 singles, and then partnered with Mac Gyswyt to win the doubles state championship. Mac now plays college tennis at Gustavus Adolphus University.

Ryan and I are among the team's five seniors. In addition to us, there is Brandon Rabinowitz, Andy Harris, and Duncan McConnell. Our two juniors, Jeremy Steinman and Clay Thompson, are beginning their first years on the team.  Andy Novak is our only sophomore, and five freshman round out our team of thirteen: Kenny Novak, Manfred Barrios, Andrew Rust, Zach Miller, and Jackson Diedrich.

We've got a big week ahead of us, with Breck, Blake, and Spring Lake Park. I'll be writing about every match, so stay tuned!

Until then,
Michael