To top off a successful 9-5 season, coach Seth DeRose was announced as the boys tennis coach of the year.

“The award usually goes to the coach whose team finished first, but the coaches this year thought we over-achieved and wanted to give credit to the team,” DeRose said. “I personally was surprised, but very happy for the team.”

Coaches in the Liberty District vote for the coach who best served his team throughout the season.

“When I heard he won the coach of the year award, it didn’t surprise me at all because it made sense,” freshman Justin Burnam said. “He was a great coach.”

This is only DeRose’s second year coaching the boys tennis team. The team swept the Woodson match and split their season games with Langley, winning and losing one. Both Woodson and Langley were ranked above McLean in the beginning of the season, and were expected to win the matches.

DeRose said he is pleased to win such an award but gives the credit to his team.

“It feels good, but again, all the credit goes to the players,” DeRose said. “I just wanted them to play their best, and they did.”

Along with being the boys tennis coach, DeRose is also a social studies teacher, boys basketball coach and golf coach.

“I think this was the best boys tennis team McLean has had in six years,” DeRose said. “I think we are only going to build on the success from this year and carry it over to next year.”

The return of junior Arup Das helped the team because he came in as the number one seed, which allowed other players to be matched up against a lower seed. Last year’s number one seed, senior Imran Nayeem, was able to drop down to the second seed and had a very successful season.

“We had a slow start to the season, and then things just really picked up,” Das said.

Das was on the team freshman year; however, he spent him his sophomore year at the Hilton Head Tennis Academy. Das attended the academy to better prepare himself for college level tennis.

The team placed third out of eight in the district, while previously predicted to place sixth. Only the top two teams advance, so they did not advance as a team; however, both Das and Nayeem did in singles.

Daniel Chao paired with Das and Nayeen paired with Richard Horner advanced in the doubles competition. Das placed fourth and Nayeem lost in the first round.

Nayeem and Horner lost in the first round and Chao and Das had to forfeit from the competition due to Das getting cramps in his leg after his last singles match.

The team is only losing two of the top six players to graduation and has many players returning next year. According to DeRose he wants all the returning players to be playing year round to keep their game in shape.