ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
St. Mary’s sophomore Brady Ryan has won CCL Player of the Year honors in each of the past two seasons.
By KATIE MORRISON
LYNN — He’s only in 10th grade, but St. Mary’s boys tennis player Brady Ryan is a bonafide veteran for the Spartans.
Ryan has been a part of the varsity program since he was in sixth grade. He’s been named a Catholic Central League all-star in each of his five seasons, and has been playing first singles, a position almost always staffed by an upperclassman, since he was in seventh grade.
Ryan has won CCL Player of the Year honors in each of the last two seasons, and brought a 63-11 high school record into this season.
Ryan is the kind of player around which one can build a program, and the Spartans have done just that. The sophomore was a huge part of St. Mary’s success over the last couple of years, and had the team’s only win against Manchester Essex as the Hornets eliminated the Spartans in the Division 3 North quarterfinal last season. He even played a “golden set” in 2016, winning 6-0, 6-0 without dropping a single point against Arlington Catholic last April.
His resume is already lengthy and impressive, but Ryan is facing new challenges this year. As the Spartans try to piece together a lineup that was decimated by graduation after last season, they look to Ryan to be that guaranteed win in the first spot.
So far, Ryan has delivered. Big time.
Coming in Thursday’s match against Latin Academy, Ryan was 4-0. He fell to Latin’s Sam Pham, who always gives Ryan a good match when the two meet.
The competition is welcome for Ryan. In CCL play, he rarely comes across an opponent that gives him a run for his money. But Pham is able to do just that, and after the two split the season series, 1-1, last year, Pham came back bigger and stronger to have the upper hand on Ryan.
“The level of our league isn’t always high, so to play teams like Latin Academy, it’s great because he needs that motivation, that push, to keep him going, or else you get complacent and you can’t get better,” St. Mary’s coach Brian Carlson said. “Sam comes from a very good community of tennis players at the Dorchester Sportsmen’s Academy, and it’s a very strong program down there. Lynn doesn’t have that tennis community so much.
(Ryan) works hard every day at it, he fights for every point, no matter what, so he’s hard to beat mentally,” Carlson added, “but physically he’s going to get caught up. That’s all it is.”
If there’s one area where opponents can beat Ryan, it’s power. The sophomore isn’t the most imposing figure on the court, but what he lacks in size and power, he more than makes up for in quickness.
“The power he’s going to start generating, along with the movement and being able to cover the court, he covers it so well, when he has that extra athleticism and strength and muscle behind it, it’s going to be a phenomenal combination,” Carlson said.
But Ryan has seen big improvements since he joined the team in sixth grade.
“I hit with a lot more power now, and I try controlling the points more,” Ryan said. “When I was in sixth grade, I was pretty much defending.”
But there’s one aspect of the game that Carlson says Ryan has had figured out since the beginning.
“When it comes to the mental side of the game, since sixth grade, he’s had it locked down pretty well,” Carlson said. “He doesn’t get flustered or frustrated very much. If he yells at himself, it’s one quick little thing and he’s back on track.
“That’s the hardest part of tennis, I feel, the mental side. That’s where I lose it on the court,” Carlson added. “You can see he has more tennis IQ now. He’s learned more strategy and he’s learned the technical side of it, and now it’s just the waiting game for the muscles and physicality. But his strokes improve every year, and he gets harder and harder to beat.”
The mental part of the game includes being able to read your opponent and anticipate, something Ryan is very skilled at.
“When I play against him in practice, I’ll think I hit a winner, and then, nope, there he goes, he hits it right back,” Carlson said. “He reads you very well and knows what you want to do and what you can do, and he’ll react.
Ryan says that he likes the individual aspect of the sport, and being in command of how he, and no one else, performs on the court.
“I like that it’s more of an individual sport whereas most other sports are team sports,” Ryan said. “You can pretty much control how you do, and you don’t have to rely on others.”
But Carlson says once Ryan is done with his match, he’s a true captain, cheering on his teammates. And seeing Ryan play at such a high level, especially in a season that hasn’t gone the way the Spartans had hoped so far, is beneficial.
“It helps our guys below him to see what they could become, to work harder in practices and to want to be at his level to compete with him and get better,” Carlson said. “If we could multiply him and get that mentality to some other players, it would help all of us.”
