2005 Men's Tennis Team - Outstanding Team

As a tennis coach for over 40 years, Bob MacKay knows it is not hard to get someone to hit a tennis ball across the net. Teach them technique, toss them balls to hit again and again and encourage them to practice and something good should come from the effort.

Mackay has done this as the men’s tennis coach at Glendale College since 2003 with varying results. His players have sometimes been spectacular, mostly good but in 2005 all of the pieces fell into place as the Vaqueros won the Western State Conference title and came within a few wins of advancing to the state finals.

He did it with local players from Crescenta Valley, Hoover, Burbank and Valencia High Schools that made up arguably the most talented team in school history. No.1 player Dylan Kim would win the state singles title in 2007, and several players from that group transferred to four-year schools, played college tennis and earned degrees.

But MacKay would be the first to admit that talent is wasted without chemistry and that the 2005 team would not have accomplished what they did without all the players being on the same page. “The 2005 team was not only one of the best in school history ,but was a group that kind of tilted the scale in terms of having really good, good players who bought into what we have to offer at Glendale and the community college experience as a whole,’’ said MacKay, who has been the head pro for the El Vaquero Racquet Club since 1990. “That said, you can have great players on a team who don’t jell as a team and you don’t get the result everyone is looking for. But to a man and player, the 2005 team was a great group to work with and every team since has the added challenge of measuring up to what that accomplished on and off the court.’’

What the 2005 team accomplished on the court was to finish with a win-loss record of 15-3 and win the Western State Conference with an undefeated 9-0 mark. The top six players of Dylan Kim, Stanley Sarapanich, Sergy Vagramian, Hakop Tadevosian, HaikK assabian and Kevin Whitemade up a who’s who of many of the best high school players in the area in recent years, including Kim, Vagramian and Tadevosian from Hoover’s 2002 CIF championship team. Robert Abedian, Nick Amicoand Chris Hernandez also played critical roles. But as team captain Kevin White explained the dynamic, adversaries becoming team mates, was a win-win for the Vaqueros. “I find it interesting that the 2005 men’s tennis team was a combination of many players that were stark competitors during high school,’’ White said. “We were able to combine those forces from some of the best high school players in the area to create the super team that was the 2005men’s team at GCC. Another key to our success was Bob MacKay, whom I believe was greatly responsible for our success due to his passion for recruiting and convincing tennis players that playing sports for a community college is in one’s best interest financially and developmentally.’’

Although that team fell to Grossmont College 5-1 in the Southern California Regional Finals, their season to remember did not end there as several of the players earned degrees from four-year schools, entered the military and played tennis professionally. Their bond continues with their induction into the hall of fame and their legacy lives on.