The Bloomfield Hills varsity tennis team consists of individual tennis players who want to win together as a team. The 16-man team is currently undefeated as regionals and states are approaching in the next two weeks.
“We only graduated two seniors last year so we had the majority of the team coming back,” Bloomfield Hills Boys Tennis Coach Greg Burks said. “We also had two very solid freshmen come in that ended up in the singles lineup. With that dynamic, some of our best players decided to play doubles and strengthen our lineup substantially. From 1 singles all the way down through 6 doubles we are very solid, very deep. Everyone has bought into the team concept and done what is best for the team and right now we are benefiting from it.”
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Burks has plenty of experience as the varsity boys tennis coach at Bloomfield Hills. He has been in the Bloomfield District for 19 years, with 10 of those years being at Lahser High School and then 9 years at Bloomfield Hills High School after the schools merged.
“Our team has done very well for themselves this year and a huge part is they work very hard at it,” said Burks. “Seeing that progress made over the season is exciting. They have all truly come together as a team and want the same goal in the end. In such an individual sport it’s great to see that part of it. They are all really embracing the idea of what a team is. For me that’s what I like about coaching.”
Burks says that many players on the team have been playing since they were young and have built great foundations for themselves to where they can go out on the court and trust their games. Players will look to further develop their skills in order to have a good performance at regionals and states.
“We have regionals and states coming up in the next two weeks,” Burks said. “Our goal is to do the absolute best we can as a team in both. We have seen every top team in the state from all divisions so we know what’s out there. There are a lot of very tough teams and in Division 1, they’re all very solid and we know what we need to work on. The guys are very focused and determined so I’m excited for the next couple weeks.”