Breaking News
Local Sports

26-Love

Sposato’s coaching tenure at Frewsburg about more than tennis

By Matt Spielman 4 min read

As members of Falconer's girls tennis team gathered their belongings at the end of Monday's match against Frewsburg/Southwestern at Southwestern's tennis courts, Jamie Sposato could not wait to wish the Golden Falcons and head coach Jamie Glatz luck at Tuesday's Section VI Division 2 team tennis championships.

Falconer had just beaten the merged Bears and Trojans team 4-1, but that didn't matter to Sposato, who is retiring from coaching following this season. He couldn't have been more excited at the prospect of a Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association team competing for a sectional title.

Nobody roots for the success of Chautauqua County's boys and girls tennis players more than Sposato.

He has for the last 26 years.

------

Three years after graduating from St. Bonaventure University, Sposato started teaching at Frewsburg and two years later began the tennis program.

Like most teams in largely individual sports, Frewsburg's boys and girls have experienced varying levels of success during Sposato's tenure. That's not to say the Bears haven't had many talented individual players -- namely Sposato's own children -- achieve high levels of success over the past 26 years.

The fact that Frewsburg's girls and boys teams have had any success and sustainable numbers in a school their size competing against highly competitive swimming and girls soccer teams in the fall, and baseball in the spring, is a testament to Sposato.

His coaching career will never be judged on team records and county or sectional titles. In fact, earlier this fall when I asked Sposato if he knew his teams' records over the years, he had no idea.

Frewsburg's tennis success will always be judged on the character of the individuals Sposato's programs produced.

Whether the Bears were good one year or bad the next, they were always near the top of their leagues' Sportsmanship Award voting because of Sposato.

Tennis, much like golf, is a sport of etiquette, honesty and class. Teams cheer for each other as lineups are announced before the matches, make their own in and out calls during the match, and always shake hands following their matches.

There is no doubt in my mind those are the things Sposato wants his players to take forward in life more than their first-serve percentage or numbers of backhand winners and break points.

------

Sposato has been a math teacher for all of his 28 years at Frewsburg. That is not necessarily a subject area that most kids love, and is also one with which a lot of kids struggle.

But Sposato's knowledge, patience and compassion make him the perfect guy to teach that subject -- much like tennis.

Most student-athletes who start playing tennis in middle school or high school do not have an ounce of experience playing the sport. There are youth soccer programs, Little League baseball and softball programs, and youth football programs -- but not many youth tennis programs.

Sposato would take in any tennis player over the years -- athletically gifted or not -- and help them learn the sport.

Several of his former players -- including his children Olivia, Jameson and Elise -- showed up Wednesday to show their respect for the man they call 'Spos.'

Two of my own kids decided to play tennis with no prior experience in the sport, largely because Sposato was the coach.

My oldest son played baseball through his sophomore year, but decided to switch to tennis because two of his best friends played the sport at Frewsburg. One of the biggest disappointments of his senior year was when his final tennis season was wiped out by COVID-19.

My horseback-riding daughter stopped playing basketball after middle school, but when we told her she still had to play a school sport in high school, tennis is what she chose. After three years of doubles play, she made the move to singles this season with the confidence instilled in her by Sposato.

And there she was Wednesday as one of 10 seniors - eight from Frewsburg - on Sposato's final Frewsburg team as he coached his last home match.

When boys and girls graduate from Sposato's tennis teams, sure, they are better tennis players than when they began, but more importantly they are better people.

With enrollments dropping it is unlikely that the dormant boys tennis program or the girls program with just two underclassmen on the merged team will exist after this season.

But that is probably fitting because Jamie Sposato is and always has been Frewsburg Tennis.

Starting at /week.