Opponents Crack, but Meyers Keeps His Composure

It could have become the ugliest moment of Jason Meyers’ high school tennis career. Instead, Meyers turned the potentially disastrous situation into perhaps his finest moment.

Last year during a Southern Section playoff match against Marina, a frustrated opponent apparently decided he couldn’t beat Meyers on the court, so he began serving him four-letter words and disparaging remarks.

With an excitable crowd and a nervous coach looking on, Meyers kept his mouth shut and let his racket do the smack-talking for him. Meyers won the match and led his University team to a convincing victory.

“I didn’t say anything that day because I knew we were there to win,” Meyers said. “I knew if I kept my composure and won, it would shut (my opponent and his teammates) up. I’ll never forget that though.”

University Coach Josh Davis has not forgotten the incident either, and said Meyers’ control that day was nothing unusual.

“He doesn’t crack,” Davis said. “If Jason starts talking back there, we could have had some major problems. But he’s just so well-behaved on the court. He remains focused on what he’s trying to do.”

This season, Meyers is more focused than ever. He is undefeated in 21 singles sets and three doubles sets while leading University to a 8-2 record and a 6-0 mark in the tough Sea View League. During his four years at University, Meyers’ teams have won 36 league matches and lost only three.

Woodbridge Coach Joan Willett has mixed feelings about seeing Meyers graduate.

“Jason’s a fine competitor,” she said. “He’s always been a gentleman. I always enjoy having my team play against him, and you can’t say that for a lot of high school tennis players.

“He plays tennis out there. There’s no shenanigans. I don’t mind losing to a good competitor like Jason. But team-wise, I’ll be happy to see him go.”

Obviously, Davis won’t be as happy.

“He’s been such a terrific player and role model for the other kids,” Davis said. “It really helps make this a team sport when your best player is out there every day working his butt off.”

Especially when Meyers doesn’t really have to be out there at all. Many high school coaches, including Davis, give their best players the option of attending practice or working with their private coaches.

“If he doesn’t want to come to practice, he doesn’t have to,” Davis said. “But he likes to come and work with the younger kids.”

Often players with Meyers’ talent barely make matches, let alone practices. But Meyers, ranked in the top 15 among 18-year-olds in Southern California, said he has never considered playing high school tennis a chore.

“I like team tennis,” he said. “I can work with myself and the team. The people who don’t play it are missing being a part of something. It’s very lonely just playing for yourself all the time.”

It’s not only lonely, Meyers says, sometimes it can get awfully boring.

“I’m not consumed by tennis,” he said. “If I’m out there practicing and I don’t want to play, I’ll leave the court. I have other things I can do, like go out with friends, maybe play some basketball or listen to music.”

Meyers said his other interests have probably kept him from being nationally ranked. While the top players in Southern California are in Miami this week for the Easter Bowl tournament, Meyers is at home playing high school matches because his ranking wasn’t high enough to secure an invitation.

He was listed as an Easter Bowl alternate for the boys’ 18 age group. But even if he had been invited, Meyers said he probably couldn’t have afforded the trip anyway.

“If I wanted to practice four hours a day and work out all the time, I could probably get a higher ranking,” he said. “But I play tennis for fun. I have a life.”

Still, Meyers has been successful enough to earn a partial scholarship to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he will major in sports psychology.

“I got this scholarship for myself and my parents,” he said. “I owed them so much. They cared about me and spent a lot of time and money on my tennis career.”

But before he leaves for college, Meyers has a few goals left to attain in high school.

“I’d like to reach the finals of the Ojai (Valley) tournament and I’d like (the team) to win league again,” he said. “I’ve improved a lot from last year. I’m pretty confident now.”

An example of Meyers’ improved play came last week when he beat Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Dennis Chang, 6-0. Chang had beaten Meyers the last two years, but Meyers refused to let Chang get away with a game.

“Chang was serving at 40-love and Jason could have said, ‘I’ll serve at 5-1 and forget about it,’ ” Davis said. “But Jason fought back and won the next five points to close it out. That says a lot about what he’s brought to this team the last four years.”