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05/21/2024 11:19 AMElliot Koplas entered his freshman year at Westbrook High School having never played a competitive tennis match. Four short years later, he will enter the Shoreline Conference Tournament with a perfect 17-0 record and the overall No. 1 seed. His journey from freshman to Westbrook’s No. 1 player has brought Westbrook boys’ tennis success that the small school has never seen before.
Elliot is a senior captain this season and cherishes that role. He leads a group of seven seniors, including multiple players joining the tennis team for the first time. He thinks this year’s group resembles a family, rather than simply a team. He sees that as a huge factor in the success the squad has had all season long.
“(It’s) a really strong team,” says Elliot. “I give a lot of credit to my coach. He had the ability to take a team and not just make it a team but a family. We hang out often; it forms a very strong team bond that I think helps us when it comes to big matches. You’re able to support your teammates and know that they’re right behind you.”
Westbrook Head Coach Dan Shapiro praises Elliot for embodying that family aspect of the team and leading by example, whether it is through his tenacious play on the court, or cheering on his teammates. You will never see Elliot take a point off, a characteristic Shapiro tries to instill in the team every year.
“Elliot is one of, if not the most competitive players I’ve ever met,” says Shapiro. “That says a lot because we’ve had a lot of good players at Westbrook. His determination and willingness to play for every point is unparalleled.”
The determination required to build and maintain a perfect regular season record means grinding out many hard-fought wins in the Shoreline Conference. Yet none tested Elliot’s skill and stamina more than an early season matchup with Sharan Manick from Cromwell.
Manick is an immensely talented player and had beaten Elliot three times during the prior 2023 season, including a matchup in the Shoreline Conference Tournament. Manick had not dropped a single set in the conference before his match with Elliot this spring.
Elliot needed more than three and a half hours to earn the victory and fought off many of Manick’s match points before prevailing 10-8 in the tiebreaker, as darkness fell and temperatures dropped.
Elliot only truly believed he could beat Manick after he won the first couple of games, grabbing the momentum and putting the pressure back on his opponent.
“Overall, it was fantastic tennis. It lasted almost four hours - we were battling it out,” says Elliot. “The feeling of being able to defeat someone that has been playing for so long and has so much talent and skill, it made me so proud of myself but also just happy that I was able to show out for my team that was there and that supported me and showed that if you’re willing to do what it takes, you can get it done.”
Shapiro called it “the greatest tennis match I’ve ever seen.” He feels the win was a huge statement, not only to the Shoreline Conference, but for Elliot himself to understand his place among the elite tennis players in the state.
“I think to be honest (Elliot is) now just figuring out how good he is and how good he can be,” says Shapiro. “He’s a perfectionist and because his will to win is so strong, sometimes he plays too cautiously, and that can be a weakness, so as the competition gets higher I want him to play up. It’s been a process, and I think he’s now seeing when he can play with someone as good as Sharan, he’s seeing how good he can be.”
That victory helped secure the top spot in the Shoreline Conference Tournament for Elliot, the first Westbrook boy to earn that honor. Elliot appreciates that history and values making a mark for Westbrook, but he knows the ranking is no guarantee of postseason success.
“Seeding doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a number,” says Elliot. “I know I’m going to have to fight my way there. I know it’s going to be the same thing I’ve been doing all season, one point at a time, one game at a time, hoping to bring home a Shoreline championship. I know it’s going to be hard to get there, so I’m just going to focus.”
Heading into the spring of his freshman year, Elliot’s tennis career was no certainty. He has three older sisters who all played tennis for the Knights, and his mom insisted he give it a try. Four years later, Elliot is incredibly glad he took his mother’s advice.
“I’m so glad she made me do it because from the moment I picked up the racket, I couldn’t put it down,” Elliot says. “I was playing against big juniors and seniors, and I’d never even played before. I was able to get better and improve with my coach. I’m so thankful that my mom had me go out and play.”
This year, Elliot looks like a seasoned veteran on the court, deploying an array of shots and strategy to dispatch his opponents. He has rounded out his game to include a formidable serve, the last missing piece in his tool belt. Now that he has a “serve worthy of a No. 1 player” according to Shapiro, Elliot has made himself even more difficult to defeat. He thanks the hours spent watching his sister’s matches for ingraining the strategic part of the game into him from a young age, regardless of whether he was playing yet himself.
“My sisters all played, so I kind of grew up watching tennis,” says Elliot. “I think that also helped with my understanding of the game strategy-wise is watching them play. Growing up watching them play definitely helped me when I played.”
As the individual Shoreline Tournament looms, Elliot remains focused and proud of his Westbrook team, excited to rejoin them for team play in the Connecticut Class S State Tournament.
“The team has stepped up in many ways,” says Elliot. “At the beginning of the season, my coach and I were talking. We knew the team had the potential to be very good, but undefeated, 16-0 right now ranked No. 1 in Class S…it’s all because of how hard this team has been working.”
Elliot hopes to continue playing tennis competitively at the club level in college. There, he intends to study sports communication and would love to pursue a career within the world of sports stats and analytics.