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05/27/2021 12:00 AMGareth Whitehouse and the Westbrook boys’ tennis team are having a year to remember. The Knights finished their regular season with a record of 18-0, and the senior captain doubles player has been vital to the club’s success.
Gareth joined the tennis team in his freshman year at Westbrook. Gareth was recruited from the freshman basketball team by Dan Shapiro, who is the head coach of the Knights’ boys’ tennis squad.
“I had never really played tennis before that, but Coach Dan and his assistant coaches really helped me develop my tennis game over the course of my high school career,” Gareth says. “Coach Dan does a great job of recruiting young athletes from other Westbrook fall and winter sports and teaching them to play tennis.”
Gareth is teaming up with junior Mason Malchiodi at the No. 1 doubles position for Westbrook this spring. The duo has a mark of 11-1 on the year, and Coach Shapiro believes that they are peaking at just the right time for the Knights, who open the postseason this week.
“Gareth has given this team everything a coach could have asked for this year. He plays hard every match, works to improve his game, and he’s a great teammate to his doubles partner Mason,” says Shapiro. “Besides being a huge help to this team, Gareth is a kind, interesting, and fun person. He’s ready for college and the next steps. I’m a big fan.”
Gareth has seen the Westbrook tennis program become a family during his time at the high school. Some of Gareth’s favorite memories are the ones that he and his teammates have made at practices over the past four years.
“My favorite aspect of the sport is practicing with all of my friends. We are a very close group of friends who practice together and hang out with each other,” says Gareth. “Many of us have played other school sports together, and many of us have played soccer together since middle school. So, we have grown up as teammates, and I think that bond has helped us as a team.”
Gareth has also had the pleasure of competing alongside two of his brothers on the tennis court at Westbrook. Gareth’s older brother Ian brother played for the Knights before graduating two years ago, and his twin brother Cooper is currently a senior on the team. Gareth fondly remembers when he and Ian joined forces at No. 2 doubles two years ago to help the Knights win a tight contest versus Cromwell.
“We were playing away at Cromwell, who we lost against in our home match and the only team above us in the Shoreline standings at the time. We were losing the match 3-2, but my brother and I won our doubles game to tie the match, and then my twin brother Cooper won the final singles match to seal the victory,” Gareth says. “That was the first time I remember that the team just came together as a close unit, and we have grown together since.”
Two years later, Gareth is playing a pivotal role for a Westbrook team that recently completed an undefeated regular season. With the playoffs getting underway, Gareth wants to Knights to turn in strong showings in both Shorelines and states. Regardless of how everything ultimately pans out, Gareth is enjoying every second that he gets to spend with his teammates after they saw the 2020 tennis season get canceled.
“At the beginning of the season, we were hopeful of making the Shoreline Conference Tournament and the state finals,” says Gareth, who was also a member of the Westbrook boys’ soccer squad. “Since we lost all of my junior tennis season and we lost our fall soccer postseason this year, we have been very careful to distance ourselves from teammates. Since we are always outside and on separate courts, it has been a little easier to distance ourselves. Now that the majority of the team has been vaccinated, we are able to spend more time together on and off the courts. The team loves to go out for dinner to celebrate big wins, and we are now able to do that again.”
When Gareth graduates from Westbrook, he will attend college at Baylor University in Texas this fall. Gareth is going to major in aeronautical sciences.
“I want to become a commercial pilot and will be attending flight school there as part of my future studies,” Gareth says. “I have learned to fly over previous summers and hope to get my private pilot license this summer.”