Mustangs tennis gets top ranking as longtime coach announces departure
The Grapevine tennis team recently received some very good news when it learned that it had achieved the number one ranking among Class 5A programs in the state for what appears to be the first time in school history.
Yet the news was somewhat bittersweet.
The Grapevine players and parents also recently learned that their beloved coach of 16 years, Angel Martinez, is moving on to assume the head coaching job at Texas Wesleyan University.
“You put all this work in and pour your heart and soul in and just when you see the thing about to explode, you have to leave,” Martinez said. “I am very conflicted. I've done this for 31 years, and I'm doing this for my family.”
Martinez, who said he would definitely consider recruiting players from Grapevine, said that the job came about through a former colleague.
“Steve Trachier was the athletic director with the GCISD and he got the job over at Texas Wesleyan,” Martinez said. “He is one of my favorite people of all time. He's an amazing man and an amazing leader, and I hated seeing him leave GCISD. We spoke before he left, and he told me that when they start a tennis program at Wesleyan, you'll be the first person I call. I kind of forgot about it, and then recently, I received a text message that said, 'Hey, we need to talk.'”
Martinez said that the news that his team was ranked number one in the state came to him in an interesting way.
“I was in my office, and I did not know the rankings had come out,” Martinez said. “I heard all this yelling and carrying on in the locker room. So I went out and said, 'Hey guys, what's going on? We need to get ready for practice quit playing around,' and they said, 'Hey Coach,' and everyone started showing me their phones. It was great, and it was a proud moment, but we want to be number one on Nov. 9.”
The Grapevine tennis team has flirted with the top spot in the state over the last few years in particular, and Martinez said seeing the ranking was a great sense of affirmation for him.
“There is not question at all,” Martinez said. “This is the culmination of 16 years at Grapevine High School. Every year, it seems like we've been getting better and better and better. The team has been growing. I think this is the product of that, and next year, we could possibly be even better.”
Martinez said to be able to win state in this his final season at Grapevine would be almost indescribable.
“There is no doubt that it would be the ultimate,” Martinez said. “It would reinforce all the work that we have done together all these years. It would be awesome. It's a lot hours that we have put in, from improving the facilities, to building pride – when we first got out there, there were hardly enough kids to field a team.
“Then there was going from fearing Southlake Carroll and Plano West to playing with them and beating them and being a 5A school and playing with the top 6A schools in the state. We've come a long way.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2014 at 3:04 PM.