Maybe it was the inspiration of a tennis great or maybe it was just great tennis, but the Ponte Vedra boys varsity tennis team went all the way to the state competition in April with 12 wins and only a single loss.
The streak ended only when Ponte Vedra came up against one of the top teams in the nation: Doral Academy, which went on to become the state champions.
“We had a good season,” said Ponte Vedra Coach Fredo Weiland. “Obviously, we fell a little bit short of our goal; our goal was to win state. But we got there, so we’re pretty happy about that.”
The team’s only loss during the season was to one of the top teams in the state, Spruce Creek, 4-3. The team also beat The Bolles School twice, 4-1 and 4-3.
“That’s not an easy thing to do,” Weiland said.
Among the team’s wins was a 5-2 victory over powerhouse Episcopal School of Jacksonville.
The Ponte Vedra boys went on to win every match at the district and regional levels before advancing to state.
One of Ponte Vedra’s stand-outs was Andrew Kelly, who only lost one match all year – that to Sami Ozzor of Spruce Creek, who went on to win at the state level.
Kelly “played the match of his life” at the state level, said Weiland, beating Doral’s top player.
The score was 8-8 and Kelly’s opponent missed both of his serves. Kelly had match point and dove for a volley, a move Weiland said he hasn’t seen more than a few times in all his years playing tennis.
Kelly’s opponent hit it out, and Kelly won the point.
Unofficially, the late tennis legend Tony Trabert joined the team in its quest for victory.
Trabert, a 10-time major champion and 1970 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee, died Feb. 3 at the age of 90 at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach. He had been a high school teammate of Weiland’s father, Dick Weiland, in 1946-47. They attended Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“So, I had stayed in touch and sort of got to know him,” Weiland said.
In fact, Walnut Hills High School named its tennis center after Trabert in 2016.
Trabert died just after the start of the 2021 season.
“It was very sad for me and a lot of people in the community,” Weiland said. “So I told the guys about Tony at the beginning of the season. I brought out some old wood rackets; one of them was Tony’s racket. It was a signature Tony racket with his picture on both sides.”
At the first match, Weiland carried Trabert’s racket and said, “Tony’s going to be a part of us this season.”
After that, someone always carried the racket at each match.
Looking ahead, Weiland is optimistic.
“We have a young team,” he said. “Only one of our top players is graduating. That’s promising.”
