In a stroke of genius, Los Gatos High School boys tennis coach Justin Stenger decided to schedule Robert Louis Stevenson School of Pebble Beach as an add-on for the final regular-season match of the 2025 season.
Unbeknownst to Stenger, the decision ignited a series of events that ultimately led to the Wildcats advancing to their first Central Coast Section tournament since 2021. Los Gatos edged RLS—the Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division champion–4-3, a result that Stenger said put the Wildcats into the CCS tournament.
Before the CCS seeding meeting, Stenger wasn’t terribly optimistic Los Gatos—which finished as the runner-up in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s lower-tier El Camino Division—would receive an at-large berth.
“The CCS typically only takes the league champ from the El Camino, but this year the committee got us in, deservingly so,” he said. “The competition in the El Camino was tough this year with four really good teams.”
The outcome came down to the No. 3 doubles match, where the freshmen tandem of Luka Fustar and Ryan Shahab—who played the majority of the season on the junior varsity squad—proved clutch to seal the outcome.
“Every match counts, but it did come down to them as the last ones on the court,” Stenger said. “Both teams were watching and our young guys came through and got us the win.”
Incredibly enough, Los Gatos and RLS wound up playing each other two weeks later in the first round of the CCS tournament, with the Wildcats prevailing again by the same score, 4-3. Freshman Alex Fador and junior Oliver Nigen won their match at the No. 1 doubles slot, giving the Wildcats their first CCS tournament victory since 2019, when they beat—you guessed it—RLS by the identical 4-3 score.
Los Gatos (11-5) saw its year end in the next round against Saratoga High, but Stenger couldn’t have been more pleased with how the season turned out.
“It means so much for our seniors to get a win in CCS,” he said. “I don’t think any of them had played in CCS as a team, so it was just a great way to cap an amazing run.”
Wildcats ace Michael Hine won the SCVAL El Camino Division singles tournament, Ethan Beal took third place and brothers Omri and Yoav Manor placed third in the league doubles tournament. Beal was the team’s No. 2 singles player and is projected to play No. 1 singles next year.
“Ethan went from No. 1 doubles as a sophomore to No. 2 singles as a junior, which tells you something,” Stenger said. “He’s going to be a really good one for us at the top spot next year.”
Hine qualified for the CCS individual singles tournament, advancing all the way to the semifinals.
Stenger was effusive in his praise for Hine, who will attend USC in the fall.
“I was really lucky and privileged to have coached Mike these last two years,” Stenger said. “I’ve coached a lot of different sports and a lot of different players over the years, and he’s definitely one of the best ever. He’s a phenomenal tennis player but better captain and a sportsman, and really embodied everything Los Gatos High School is all about.”
Stenger brought up situations in which coaches and parents from opposing teams came up to him—during the middle of matches, no less—to highlight Hine’s sportsmanship.
“Often times Michael would give close line calls to his opponent and then just go on to the next point,” Stenger said. “We had multiple coaches and parents from the other team say how classy we were and how good we were in calling lines. That’s a reflection of Mike because that’s how he led the whole team.”
It’s commonplace for high school coaches to spout hyperbole when highlighting their star players, but Stenger probably can’t praise Hine enough given the dynamics of high school tennis—an arena entirely different from other sports.
Whereas the vast majority of the top-rated recruits from sports such as basketball, football, volleyball and wrestling compete for their high school, that’s not necessarily true for tennis. And when the top-ranked tennis athletes do play for their high school, the coaches know they need to cater to the player’s schedule.
Top-rated junior players have the freedom to practice with the high school team or their own private coach, usually choosing the latter. In Hine, Stenger had a player who valued the high school game with immense appreciation.
“A lot of No. 1 players don’t come to practices, but Mike was at all of them,” Stenger said. “He set the tone for everyone else, he made everyone better and made me better. He would come to practice, kind of run it and make everyone better. Just a wonderful and amazing kid.”
Stenger vividly remembers Hine and Matt Mitchell—the team’s 2024 No. 1 player—pairing up doubles players for matches.
“Mike is going off to USC on the pre-med path and going to play club tennis there,” Stenger said. “He’s going to be a great doctor one day. But, if he ever wants to be a coach, he can do that, too.”
While Hine’s intangibles were off the charts, Stenger said the ace’s athleticism was no less spectacular.
“I saw him do some things on the tennis court that I might never see again,” Stenger said. “In the league tournament, he hit an absolute rocket between his legs for a winner. And in one of the matches against Stevenson, he started with four aces in a row. I’ve never seen that happen before. I remember thinking, ‘Did that just happen?’ Mike really put this program on a good path for years to come.”
