The landscape of Santa Monica school athletics was significantly altered this month, as one local tennis unit served up a history-making performance.
On May 10, the New Roads Jaguars boys tennis squad ousted the previously-undefeated Oak Hills unit 11-7 to win the CIF Southern Section Division 6 championship. The monumental victory was the first CIF championship by any team in New Roads history, an affirmation of athletics’ importance to the school’s well-rounded educational efforts.
Led by head coach Kramer Waltke in his third season at New Roads, the Jaguars were boosted by senior leaders Aidan Miller and Cy Arato-Orlovski, who served as the squad’s top two singles options.
“Having both of them on the team, I think it kind of gave our whole team a lot of confidence … I think it just kind of raised the level of everybody on our team and it made everybody have some confidence in their own game,” Waltke said of his seniors.
Arato-Orlovski has stuck with the Jaguars through thick and thin, having his freshman season cut short from the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic before arriving to a New Roads campus bereft of a proper practice setting.
“We used to pretty much just swing our rackets in the parking lot and pretend that we were hitting it over a net, which is crazy that we’ve come that far,” he said.
After finding courts at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center and gaining a leader in Waltke, the squad began on the uptick but truly found its championship footing once adding Miller. The senior joined the Jaguars for 2024 after years of competitive play outside of the school, immediately increasing his own skill and the talents of those around him.
“I spent a lot of time working on my shots, working on my footwork, working on strength, and I think this year everything kind of came together for me,” Miller said.
Arato-Orlovski added that Miller has been a “big game changer” both in raising the team’s collective confidence and helping fix his serve, which became “a weapon” for the Jaguars’ number-two option. Miller was forced to miss the first part of the playoff run due to studying for final exams, but came out swinging in key victories like the semifinals win over Rosemead and the championship tilt against the then 19-0 Oak Hills squad.
Coach Waltke said that the Jaguars took each round of the playoffs as they came, keeping expectations low until the boys truly believed they could win it all.
“I think it was sort of shocking for the New Roads community,” Waltke said. “I think we knew we had a good team, but this is the first time New Roads [has] ever made a championship match in any sport, and the first time we were able to win, so I think it was a lot of excitement.”
Adding that the “whole community” came out to support the Jaguars, the title was the latest success for New Roads athletics. The Jaguars baseball squad advanced all the way to the CIF Southern Section Division 8 quarterfinals, its deepest playoff run since 2016, while the boys volleyball unit also achieved a CIF-SS playoff berth. Arato-Orlovski stated that the school’s new athletic director, Richard Jenkins, “really cares about the program” and that he hopes the championship will keep talented athletes at New Roads rather than transferring.
“I think athletics are extremely important in [a] high school career if you’re able to participate,” Waltke added. “They can teach you a lot of lessons that you can take with you the rest of your life. So I hope this championship kind of [proves] the value in it. I think our team got a lot of valuable experience from this run.”
The team’s stars still kept an academic mindset along with their athletic exploits, as Arato-Orlovski will be attending Brown University on a biomedical engineering pathway, while Miller will be going to Stevens Institute of Technology. Both top players will be melding their academic pursuits with their tennis prowess, including Arato-Orlovski’s intention to play club tennis along with attempting to walk on to the Brown basketball team.
“I think I’ve been improving a lot, so I think I just want to keep improving … maybe there’s something after [college],” Miller said of his future.