Westfield multiple-sport Head Coach George Kapner added another milestone to his long list of credits. This time it came on the tennis courts at Tamaques Park in Westfield on April 9.
Tennis victory No. 700 came quite easily with a rapid 5-0 win in boys tennis over the Elizabeth Minutemen. Ben Duan defeated Damian Ortiz, 62, 6-0, at first singles. Eshaan Khera blanked Dan Planos, 6-0, 6-0, at second singles. Deven Patel jarred Luis Nunes, 6-0, 6-1, at third singles. At first doubles, Jacob Blaustein and Krishav Singla defeated Martin Nunes and Joe Romani, 6-1, 6-1. Leo Goldman and Arden Rappaport topped John Zavolas and Micha Regalado, 6-0, 6-0.
But the achievement was more than just a number to Coach Kapner, who explained, “Matt (Varhley) and I were talking about it. Now that I am retired and I’m looking back and the Hall of Fame is coming up, you start putting everything together. It’s really about this team and what these boys can do or these girls when I used to coach girls. Then the season is over and you move on to the next group of kids. Nobody really starts a career saying, ‘I want to get 700 wins in tennis or 1,250 high school wins or whatever that is.’ I’m just proud of the young men and women that I have had the opportunity to coach.”
As a tune-up, the Blue Devils shut out the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Raiders, 5-0, on April 5. Duan stopped Ed Li, 6-1, 6-4, at first singles and Khera topped Julian Meinke, 6-1, 6-0, at second singles. Patel blanked Nian Desai, 6-0, 6-0, at third singles. At first doubles, Cole Hornbeck and Chris Winters blanked Nate Leversee and Dylan Fountain, 6-0, 6-0, and at second doubles, Evan Kahn and Justin Lee blanked Ethan Diamond and Bowen Zhang, 6-0, 6-0.
Several years ago, when Coach Kapner achieved his 1,000th career victory in all of his sports, when asked how he felt, he replied, ‘It let’s me know I’m old.’ Now that he achieved No. 700 in tennis alone, he added, “Now I’m older.”
Trying to zero in on just how many career wins he has Kapner recalled, “It’s over 1,250. I don’t know the exact number. It’s 700 here, and between boys soccer and girls soccer it’s well over 400. I know these numbers – boys swimming in three years 40 wins and two state championships and girls tennis in seven years it’s 40 wins. Exact same number of wins!”
But that’s not all for Coach Kapner, who came to Westfield in 1975. “Girls basketball was very interesting because it was my first varsity job in the (19)70’s. We didn’t have a lot of success in terms of wins and losses. I think we won eight Christmas Tournaments but that was it. We weren’t as competitive as the other sports but I learned how to coach. Those girls, who are now women and maybe grandmothers, called me on things, like I shouldn’t do it that way. They helped me refine my coaching talents and handling teenagers. We didn’t have a lot of wins, but boy! They were super important to me and I might be closer to that group of former athletes than any other former athletes.”
Looking back through all the decades, all the coaching and all the people he worked with, Kapner said, “I taught here for 40 years. The teaching experience was phenomenal. I still have friends from the experience of teaching. It’s been an amazing career. Westfield is, I couldn’t have asked a better place to work. The number of kids, the number of parents, the athletic directors I have had four amazing athletic directors – John Lay, Gary Kehler then Ed Tranchina and now Sandy (Mamary). I frankly get chills when I sit down and start thinking about it when they ask me about that information and this information, and I have to look it up. That’s not what it’s all about because this is about all those kids. It is like down Memory Lane!”
