Coppell senior Vinay Patel, tennis team captain, has one goal for his high school tennis career: make it to state this year. CHS9 student Shay Patel, a varsity player as well, has a different goal for his high school tennis career: follow his brother’s footsteps and become number one on the tennis team and become varsity team captain.

Vinay started playing tennis at 8 for fun. At 10, Vinay realized he wanted to play the sport competitively. 

“I loved playing a lot of sports as a kid,” Vinay said. “When I was younger, my mom knew that as well and she would have me play a bunch of sports. I tried soccer, basketball, and a lot of [other] sports. Then, one of my friends at the time played tennis and recommended I try it. So I tried that as well and tennis was just the sport I loved the most.”

While they both played many sports when they were younger, when Vinay decided that tennis was for him, Shay was inspired by his brother to choose the same.

“I saw how much fun he and his friends were having going to all the trips and hanging out after practices,” Shay said. “I thought it would be really fun so I decided to work hard to get on the team.”

As the brothers are three years apart, they only get this school year to be on a team together, a chance they took eagerly.

“In the past year I was working harder to go on varsity so we could be on the same team together,” Shay said. “[And] it’s really fun being on the same team because I get to see [Vinay] every day and we get to play tennis with each other more.”

Watching them interact together, it is very obvious that the brothers have a tight bond.

“They get along tremendously,” Coppell coach Rich Foster said. “We’ve played them together in practice for fun. A lot of times, brothers and sisters say no to playing together but they get along tremendously, and chemistry is not a problem.”

When Vinay’s high school tennis career started he was the only freshman on the varsity team during his freshman year. However, after the first few weeks of the fall season, he shattered his kneecap and did not return to play until mid spring season.

“His recovery time slowed him down,” Foster said. “He was not able to hit, but he wanted to be out there. Once he recovered to where the doctor said he could hit, he hopped right back in, didn’t miss a beat. I was worried; sometimes after people have had a severe injury like that they tend to be a little more timid on the court and don’t push themselves as hard. He did not. He went full force.”

His work ethic and personability has made him well liked by his teammates. Because of this, he has been voted as team captain by his teammates for two years in a row.

“He’s a very good captain because he is vocal,” New Tech High @ Coppell senior Cason Cole said. “He tries to include everybody and is a very talkative person. He’s also very honest and competitive. Everybody likes him. Vinay is a person that leaves good impressions on everybody.”

Making it to state has been a bit of a challenge to Vinay. As a sophomore, he and then his doubles partner CHS 2020 graduate Clark Parlier, won nearly every tournament.

“We were in the championship at the Midland tournament and we beat the [Southlake Carroll] team in three sets,” Foster said. “[Carroll] was going to be the top seed in our region and we knocked them off. So we came back from Midland excited that we were going to be the top seed, [since] in regionals, the top two go to state, so we for sure had the best shot to go on to state since I’ve been here.”

However, due to COVID-19, the tournament was canceled. During his junior year, he and his partner CHS 2021 graduate Matthew Abbey were not as close to making it to state and lost in the regionals semifinals. Nevertheless, Vinay is confident he will make it this year. 

“The biggest goal that I had in all these four years was to make state,” Vinay said. “That’s the big thing because around five people from Coppell have ever done that. So [the tournament being canceled] was actually really disappointing. But I’ll make it this year; I’ll excel. That’s the plan.”

Vinay is working hard to make this goal come true, not to the surprise of Foster. Vinay has proved to both his teammates and coach that he has the skills to be both team captain and on varsity.

“Skill wise, he’s improved phenomenally, maturity wise and leadership wise, he’s our second year team captain,” Foster said. “He’s become a true leader on the team, his growth has just been phenomenal. When he first came in, he was a young guy on a team where we had a lot of good boys and he played line five or six for us his freshman year. Now, he’s grown to the point where he’s now line one for us. He’s become a very stable and good team leader for us.”

While Vinay enjoys playing for a team, he is not sure whether he will continue to play for a team in college or simply continue playing in his free time. He plans on making his decision this spring.

“[Playing for a team] has always been something I wanted to do because the team aspect of tennis is incredibly fun,” Vinay said. “After my sophomore year, I kind of took a step aside from club tennis outside of school and focused more on the team because it fit me better. I’m still talking to a handful of college coaches who want to recruit me to their time, but as of right now I’m still deciding whether I want to pursue division tennis at college. [However,] I’ll definitely not stop playing tennis. I’ll play club or I’ll play recreationally because tennis is just a really fun sport.”