BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield High School boys tennis team is enjoying a fine season this spring.
The Bengals — with a 6-4 record through Monday, April 25 — defeated Cedar Grove, 4-1, on Wednesday, April 20, to advance to the Essex County Tournament consolation semifinals for the first time in a long time, according to head coach Mike DiMasi. BHS unfortunately lost to Seton Hall Prep, 4-1, in the ECT consolation semifinals on that same day.
In addition, junior Arian Abalos has advanced to the Essex County Tournament singles tournament championship match, where he will face Newark Academy’s Josh Mandelbaum on either May 14 or 15. Abalos is seeking to become the first ECT boys tennis individual champion in program history.
For DiMasi, this year’s team has been a joy to coach.
“This is by far one of the best seasons I have coached since being the coach of the BHS boys tennis team,” said DiMasi in an email to the Independent Press on April 28. “We are currently 6-4, and this is an extremely talented and knowledgeable group that consistently strives to learn, improve and achieve the best that they can, on and off the tennis court. For example, they are always studying and watching tennis drills and fundamental videos that I post and send them to help with their game. They are a very selfless and considerate group of players who all care about each other and their teammates’ overall success.”
DiMasi cited the Bengals’ wins over Verona and Cedar Grove as other extraordinary achievements this season.
“I have never beaten Verona, who is always extremely well coached and talented, in my time as a coach, with a very sound victory, and Cedar Grove is always a tough opponent,” said DiMasi.
The only unfortunate results, DiMasi said, were the tough 3-2 losses to West Orange. “Both matches were beyond competitive and needed a third set to decide them,” DiMasi said.
Abalos, at the first singles position, has been quite impressive this season.
“Arian is an exceptional player; the best first singles player I have ever coached,” DiMasi said. “He is pure quality and at the top of his position. He is indispensable to our program. I never worry about Arian, because I am confident in his special ability to succeed in every match.”
James Orosz has made nice strides at the second singles position.
“We were extremely lucky, not only that James joined last year as a freshman, but as a freshman who has played and has a tennis background,” DiMasi said. “He was third singles last year and is now second singles this year. We rely on James heavily, because he has become such a remarkable player who has won an overwhelming majority of his matches this year and was first team all–SEC (Super Essex Conference) division last year. We are exceedingly dependent on James, and he is fundamental to our team’s success. James had two amazing comebacks against the Cedar Grove second-singles player twice this year after being down early in the first sets.”
Giancarlo Serrano, at the third singles spot, also has improved tremendously.
Serrano was “another player we were lucky to get as a freshman three years ago with incredible talent,” DiMasi said. “Giancarlo arrived with a tennis background, and each season has just gotten better and better, to the point of hitting the tennis ball with such pace. Giancarlo’s win against the third singles for Cedar Grove heavily contributed to our win in the ECT quarters.”
Charles Eshelman and Ravi Patel hold the first doubles position.
“Charles has taken a devotion to tennis and is really striving daily to improve,” DiMasi said. “He is what coaches look for in a player, because he is coachable and wants to, every moment, continue to learn, grasp and improve. He is always working to get better and is determined to be better and committed to being the best. Ravi has done an excellent job at improving some aspects of his doubles game, such as volleying.”
Dave Persaud, Arpeet Barvalia and Nikhil Hirpara rotate at the second doubles position.
“Dave has really committed himself to tennis by not only playing, but also teaching and coaching tennis in the off-season,” DiMasi said. “Dave aims to absorb and submerge himself into as much tennis and as much tennis knowledge as possible. Arpeet and Nikil have been jockeying for the second position of second doubles, but both are our captains and are phenomenal leaders. The coaches and players heavily respect both of them because of their ability to lead by example and be there, day in and day out. As coaches, we can entrust them to help their teammates with different tennis techniques or fundamentals.”
DiMasi also highlighted other players in the program. “Sophomore Kyler Walbeek joined last year with very minimal experience in tennis, and this year has improved dramatically/exponentially,” DiMasi said. “He has come in and even played a few matches on varsity this season due to absences, and performed at a high level like we as a team never missed a beat, and won against Verona while playing second doubles.
“Augustus Figenshu is another player who joined last season as a freshman and joined as a player with tennis fundamentals. Gus has become a source of energy for the team with his fun personality and is very helpful in practice by working with and assisting others, such as Kyler and James.
“Omar Deaf is a freshman, and even though he does not have much tennis experience, we are very thankful and glad that he decided to take a risk and join our tennis program. It is not easy to take a leap and join a sport that is very challenging, especially with minimal knowledge of that sport. But Omar seized this opportunity to join a program unknown to him, and we are a better team because of it. In addition, Omar has been praised by our tennis professional for how he has grasped and embraced the game so quickly.”
DiMasi also thanked junior varsity coach Sean Dugan for joining the program this season. “We were looking for a new JV coach this season and are very grateful that coach Dugan expressed interest and later became the coach,” DiMasi said. “Coach Dugan has become a vital and integral part of our team’s early, magnificent success. He has taken it upon himself to help Omar truly grow as a new tennis player and make sure our team is well prepared and confident for every single match.”
The Bengals are looking forward to the rest of the season.
“We still have a number of games left in our season and goals we still want to achieve, which are to place high in our division and earn a strong seed in the state tournament,” DiMasi said. “We are currently sixth in our group and section, which is the highest I have ever been as a coach, and we hope to even get a higher seed as we move through the rest of the season.
“I am quite lucky to have a group of mature, overly brilliant and caring players that can basically run our practices themselves while us coaches observe, monitor, and mentor. These players watch comprehensive and numerous amounts of tennis drill videos so they can utilize the ones in practice that will help them improve upon the aspects of tennis that may be a bit of a weakness for them.”
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