Sports: St. Bernard’s Alex Zuczek is The Day’s All-Area Boys’ Tennis Player of the Year
St. Bernard’s Alex Zuczek started his success at a young age ... and has just kept right on going
It was 2008, and a young Alex Zuczek— just 8 years old as his father Richard remembers— was at the Pond View Racquet Club near their home in Westerly, clutching a trophy nearly half the size of him.
To his right towered an older high school player holding his own trophy, this one much more manageable in the larger boy’s arms.
Both had just won their respective conferences in Pond View’s warm- up tennis tournament, held each year for local and high school players, and Zuczek, having flown through his competition undefeated, was named the tournament MVP.
“I think that’s when we realized, ‘Wow. He’s beating kids older than him, he’s beating kids more experienced than him, he’s got some real potential,’” Richard Zuczek said.
Tennis is nothing new in the Zuczek household. Richard, a professor at the Coast Guard Academy, played the sport recreationally in college, as did his wife, Etsuko, who joined a league of her own. Alex’s older brother Nick will play tennis at Vassar College and Alex, who just completed his sophomore year at St. Bernard School, has developed his own resume of success at just 16 years old.
A more mature Alex Zuczek now has multiple personal trainers that serve on the pro tour, as well as a nutritionist. He is a member of the United States Tennis Association, which he described as AAU in basketball terms, and competes against the top competition.
In his first two years at St. Bernard, Zuczek has won the Eastern Connecticut Conference singles championship twice, with both victories coming against his brother.
Zuczek, who attributes his success and abilities to his parents for introducing him to the game, was named The Day's 2015 All-Area Boys’ Tennis Player of the Year. It is his second straight such honor.
“They’re the ones who keep us, keep me on a schedule that allows me to grow,” Zuczek said of his mom and dad.
Both Richard and Etsuko wanted their boys to become
involved in a sport and tennis proved to be the path of choice.
St. Bernard coach Jim Hazlin, formerly a coach at Ledyard High School and the Coast Guard Academy, said he used to see Zuczek on the college’s campus when he was still smaller than his racket.
“It was one of those things where they got into it, they really enjoyed it, it was a family thing,” Hazlin said. “You’d see the dad, the mom and the two little kids on the Coast Guard courts on weekends quite a bit.”
For Zuczek, getting into the sport meant beginner lessons and joining a tennis club at the age of 4, “simple things like that,” his father said.
Zuczek remembers holding the racket as a young boy, his now loose and fluid stroke discombobulated and comical back then as a 5-year-old.
“I used to spin around and wouldn’t, like, follow through,” he said. “I would just spin … like a little ballerina.”
The talent illustrated that day at the Pond View Racquet Club, however, was undeniable, just a small preview of what was to come.
“His coaches noticed very early, very young, how he could anticipate things that other people couldn't anticipate,” Richard Zuczek said. “And he would be in groups with players who are five, six, seven years older than hewas.”
Hazlin believes one of the most impressive facets of Alex’s game, however, is his ability to perform at such a high level in high school.
The former college coach has seen his share of solid players, and good tennis is no novelty. But Zuczek’s skill set at only 16 — his athleticism, ability to snap a shot where his opponents can’t reach it and prowess when hitting a forehand with topspin— is what sets him apart.
From the Pond View tennis tournament and his ballerina- like swing, Zuczek has put in a lot of work, sometimes 15- 20 hours per week, and come a long way.
“It’s a little more evolutionary,” Richard Zuczek said. “We never knew what to expect. … We thought ‘ let’s try this, let’s see how they do.’”