By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — Harlingen High tennis coach James Tanamachi said his Cardinals were the bridesmaid in District 32-6A for a long time — until this year, that is.
They have done well in the team tennis season, finishing second or third and consistently making the postseason. But 2007 was the last time they claimed the top spot in the district, which is typically dominated by perennial Rio Grande Valley tennis power Harlingen South.
After watching a promising season get cut short in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cardinals knew how important it was to take advantage of the opportunity to compete, even if it was different than years past. Instead of the usual dual-match format, 32-6A played its first district tournament during the course of two days, Oct. 15-16, at multiple sites.
The Cardinals defeated Brownsville Rivera 19-0 and Los Fresnos 17-2 to set up a battle against the rival Hawks for the district championship. Harlingen High was victorious again, going 9-0 in boys matches to also clinch the boys team title, and 11-5 overall to win the district. The boys were a perfect 27-0 throughout the tournament and only dropped one set all weekend.
“Usually we get kind of intimidated by (South)… but this year they just came out and played well. I’m real proud of them, and I’m so happy for the seniors,” Tanamachi said. “I think having really strong No. 1s helped us because it sets the tone. When your No. 1 is rolling, it trickles down to the whole team. Everybody played hard. If you’d have told me that (our boys would go undefeated) before, I knew we were good, but I would’ve had a hard time thinking we were that good.”
Ashley Serrata is Harlingen High’s No. 1 girls player and competes in singles and girls doubles. She won a crucial doubles match against South to clinch the team title. Serrata has been a member of the Cardinals tennis program all four years of high school, and she said the team win against South tops all other experiences.
“It felt amazing. That was a really big thing that we did,” Serrata said. “It was all of us together, we all did that. It was just a super good feeling. I enjoy this team, and we worked very hard for it and we really deserved it.”
Freshman Brandon Delos Reyes is the No. 1 boys player for the Cardinals. He was the eighth-grade district champion last year and has made an immediate impact on the Harlingen High program. He plays No. 1 singles and No. 1 boys doubles with Michael Sanchez.
“I’ve been playing with these guys at practice for a couple years now, so I knew we’d have a good chance at doing well this year,” Delos Reyes said. “It’s really cool just to know that some of these seniors hadn’t done that yet and I helped them experience it. Hopefully we get more of this in the future. I want to keep training hard and be able to, in the future, lead my team.”
Seniors Aden Dutter and James Ichiro Tanamachi said the team camaraderie has been a big boost this year. They said teammates are always there to cheer each other on during matches, and Dutter said that support makes everyone play better.
Dutter is moving, so he participated in his last Cardinals tennis practice Friday and won’t compete in the postseason. He said his situation makes the district championship even more special, and that he’ll carry the mental toughness he learned from tennis with him for the rest of his life.
“There’s a good energy on this team. You can feel that energy behind you, like if you’re a little tired or not feeling it, a little upset, it makes you pick it back up and push for the team,” Dutter said. “It was weird, playing three teams back to back to back like that, but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. When I heard that all my teammates won, hearing their scores and knowing (the boys) went undefeated, coaches being super excited, that’s when I was really, like, man, we did that. It’s like a going away gift. I got to enjoy that final moment with them.”
This district title has extra meaning for the Tanamachis as well. The elder Tanamachi won a district tennis title as a Harlingen High senior years before taking over the program. Now, his son will join him on the record wall after achieving the same feat.
James Tanamachi credited the hard work the Cardinals put in while the team was practicing remotely as a key to its success. Tanamachi said Harlingen High strength and conditioning coordinator Mike Aguilar provided workouts for the tennis players, and those paid dividends at the district tournament.
While some teams had players withdraw mid-competition because of exhaustion, the Cardinals were well-conditioned, making them better prepared to withstand the heat and physical demands of playing back-to-back matches.
Harlingen High did have a disadvantage when it faced Rivera and Los Fresnos, though. The Cardinals competed on their opponents’ home courts in both matches. They’ll have to do that again in their bi-district match against Edinburg Vela, but they’re going in confident anyway.
“It was kind of unreal at first, but after it sunk in it felt very nice,” James Ichiro said. “What stuck with me the most was at the end, when our team was all together and we were given the trophy and everything, that was pretty surreal. Everyone got so excited. It was like a statement to ourselves and to everyone else. It was for sure a confident booster. We’re going to try to take that confidence over with us (for the playoffs).”