The strategy that goes into compiling a challenging pre-league schedule often gets overlooked once those proposed matches start turning into actual wins and losses.
For Los Alamitos coach Kevin Garrett though, cementing a treacherous pre-league slate is the only result that ultimately matters.
“My philosophy has always been that you have to play three types of opponents,” said Garrett, OCVarsity’s 2012 girls tennis coach of the year. “Opponents that are better than you, so they make you play better. Opponents that are about your level where anything can happen during a match, and also ones that are a little lower than you.
“That’s when you’re trying new things, experiencing new things and doing stuff that you aren’t going to normally do.”
To manifest his philosophy, Garrett — in his second year as Los Alamitos’ girls tennis coach — anchored his pre-league docket with CIF-SS Division 1 powers University, Dana Hills, Peninsula and Harvard-Westlake.
All with a team that regularly started just two seniors and five underclassmen.
“In tennis, more so than other sports, you play up or down to your opponents’ ability,” he said. “If you play the top schools, they’re going to push you to get better. We have good girls on our team and to make those girls great, they’re going to have to play against the best.”
The Griffins — who made the leap from Division 2 to Division 1 before the season — finished 13-5, claimed their first Sunset League championship since the mid-2000s and reached the quarterfinals of the Division 1 playoffs.
By season’s end, Los Alamitos — ranked as high as No. 3 in Orange County — owned losses to each of Division 1’s top five teams.
“I didn’t care about wins and losses when I made our schedule,” Garrett said. “I cared about learning and development. Wins and losses are irrelevant to me. … My dream would be to play only top-caliber teams that will force our girls to play up to that highest-tier of tennis.”
In preparation for such a daunting pre-league schedule, Garrett had to hold daily practices on various off-campus courts due to ongoing renovations at Los Alamitos’ tennis facility.
“Several days I had 56 girls on one court,” he said. “So we’d just work on conditioning and other things that we could do with the little space we had. … It’s frustrating when you don’t have courts available because that cuts down on the amount of balls you can hit. …
“We’re excited to have playable courts now though, so the short term sacrifice for the long term facility was well worth it.”
