Marvin Hedgepeth has been coaching high school tennis for more than 30 years, so the list of memories runs long. But there’s no question in his mind that the past two years of his career have been the most gratifying.
In two years at the helm of Hampton Roads Academy’s tennis program, Hedgepeth, who previously spent 26 years coaching at Menchville High School without ever winning as much as a regional title, has guided the Navigators’ girls team to back-to-back Virginia Independent Schools state championship.
They finished off the repeat over the weekend after breezing past Norfolk Christian 5-1 in well under two hours on their home courts.
“We went into the Division II tournament having been tested severely, and that was the difference,” Hedgepeth said of his team, which competes in the always competitive Tidewater Conference alongside Division I powers Cape Henry and Norfolk Academy, who together handed the Navigators three of their four losses on the season.
The repeat itself is nice, but Hedgepeth said he was delighted with the way this year’s team pulled it off.
Losing area standout Maureen Slattery to the University of Denver was a hurdle the Navigators tackled with passion and determination, which, for Hedgepeth, made this year’s run just as sweet as the first.
Hedgepeth said this year’s group acknowledged right away that, even with senior standout Wiktoria Plawska back anchoring the lineup, they weren’t going to be as top heavy this fall and would need to rely on their depth.
So, players like senior Manpreet Dhindsa and junior Anne Casey, who anchor the bottom half of the Navigators rotation along with junior Keavy Baylor, a former cross-country runner who chose to play tennis for the first time this fall, put in extra work during the offseason and returned this year “at an entirely new level,” according to Hedgepeth.
Their efforts behind Plawska, who lost just two singles matches at No. 1 all season, and sophomore Joyce Fields and junior Grace Prillaman proved to be a devastating package for Division II teams as HRA’s state title win was never close to being threatened during the state tournament.
The Navigators blanked Nansemond Suffolk and Covenant School 5-0 in the first two rounds of states before knocking off Norfolk Collegiate in last Saturday’s final.
“It’s been quite a ride,” Hedgepeth said of his first two years at HRA. “I find the level of commitment better than I had in previous years, which is just what the doctor ordered for me because I’m very serious about competitive tennis. The past two seasons have been extremely gratifying for me.”
While the past two years have been unforgettable, Hedgepeth acknowledged the future is also very bright with Fields, an already gifted athlete who Hedgepeth says has one of the best first and second serves he’s seen in a high school player, and Prillaman, who Hedgepeth referred to as his “right arm” for her “irreplaceable” efforts in keeping the team organized and being a role model, highlighting five starters who will return next year.
“We weren’t as top heavy this year as we were [last year] with Maureen, but we had some girls who came back at an entirely new level and really stepped up for us,” Hedgepeth said. “Next year we’ll be even less top heavy, but we showed this season that if you can win at No. 4, 5 and 6 you can still be successful. I see a lot of promise in what we have coming back.”
Whether the Navigators will overcome the loss of Plawska as well as they handled Slattery’s departure has yet to be seen, but Plawska said based on what she’s seen during her two years at HRA she believes the program is in good hands.
Plawska, who joined HRA as a junior last fall after playing two years at York High where she was crowned the Group AA state singles title as a sophomore, will graduate in the spring having won three state titles — one individual with York and two team with HRA. Plawska hopes to play tennis at either the University of Rochester or Lewis and Clark College.
“It’s been great. I’m happy that all of my hard work and training has paid off,” Plawska said of winning two state titles in her only two years at HRA. “… Saturday was bittersweet playing my last high school match, but it couldn’t have ended any better.”
