An alumni student and an alumni parent have been filling in the coaching duties with the current Healdsburg Girls Tennis Team. And the girls couldn’t ask for better training.
Vikram Johnson, alumni of Healdsburg High (2021) and for four years the #1 boys tennis singles player, and his father Scott Johnson, now in his seventh year of coaching tennis, both helped train the girls team this fall.
“Vikram was reluctant to help with the team, because he is somewhat shy and does not like to talk in front of groups of people,” said Scott Johnson.
“But he agreed to fill in when I was out of town at the beginning of the season.” Johnson co-coaches the girls team with Mary Beth Chandler and her daughter Margot.
“The team members immediately took to his coaching. He was able to communicate with the team members in ways that Mary Beth and I could not,” Johnson said. He said the players “became more motivated, improved significantly and had more fun.”
Eventually, though, Vikram Johnson had to return to UC Davis to continue his own college tennis career, despite requests from the girls that he stay on into the season.
However, said his father, “Now that he has returned to Davis, the official coaches will have to carry on.”
Scott Johnson, a lifelong tennis player himself, called the sport “a shared love of my family.” He encouraged his own children to take up the sport—a little too well, perhaps. “Vikram has been a far better tennis player than me for several years, and now it turns out that he is the better coach, too,” he said.
Recent Matches
The Healdsburg High girls tennis team is in the midst of its fall season, with a handful of North Bay-Oak League rivals lined up twice a week until Oct. 24. But even that’s better than the three matches in one week the girls faced recently, thanks to an early season cancellation due to air quality.
From Tuesday Oct. 3 to Thursday Oct. 5, the Greyhound girls faced Analy, Ukiah and Cardinal Newman at the HHS campus, in a series of after-school-hour battles that tested the mettle of the young team, producing strong games across the board.
The Oct. 3 match was a close one, with victories in #2 singles (Mehan Dhiman) and both #1 doubles (Ruby Leffew / Isabel Lickey) and #3 doubles (Sana Katsuki / Kathleen Arriaga) for a 4-3 Analy win. The match could have gone the other way, with what coach Mary Beth Chandler called a “close nail-biting tiebreak at #3 Singles for the second set,” which Amelia Wickersham could not pull off, falling to Annika Topham.
The next day the delayed match with Cardinal Newman took place, sandwiched midweek on a Wednesday. The Cardinals won all of their matches except #2 singles, when once again Dhiman brought home with a 6-1, 6-3 win.
Finally Thursday arrived, the third match in as many days against quality opponents. This time it was Ukiah on the courts, and the Greyhounds took three of the four singles matches, with only #1 player Isabel Smith falling to Martiza Jacobs.
As well as #2 Dhiman over Joni Johnson, #3 Wickersham and #4 Clair Barry dispatched their Ukiah opponents, Jennifer Fuentes and Tahtiana James, respectively. The evening ended with a 4-3 margin for Ukiah.
“Whew!” was Chandler’s sentiment after the three-match midweek set. “Lots of good energy, some tears.”
Matches next week include Windsor, on Oct. 20, and Rancho Cotate, on Oct. 21.
