The Channels: SBCC tennis player Mauritz Seitz wins WSC Men’s Individual Title
Original article from The Channels here.
City College tennis player Mauritz Seitz has shown his tennis skills since coming to play for the Vaqueros, leading him to great success.
Seitz, a 19-year-old second-year international student from Germany was 7 years old when he started playing tennis. Both his dad and younger brother played tennis which is how he got introduced to the sport.
For a while he switched to playing soccer at the age of 8 or 9 and only played tennis about twice a month. It wasn't until he was 16 years old that he switched back to tennis after the COVID-19 pandemic.
He describes tennis as a tough and tricky sport, but he claims that he can learn a lot. Seitz said that when one is on the court you're the only individual that can influence your behavior and how one reacts to situations. Even though there are moments he will feel stressed, Seitz feels confident in his skills and always does his best to be focused and enjoy the moment.
"I think I'm pretty good and prepared because of my adaptation and reaction [to] skills," Seitz said. "Every time I'm going onto the court I'm just trying to be really focused and stay in the moment and enjoy it."
Seitz can't imagine his life without tennis. With the inspiration of his family for loving sports and his drive for competition he wants to keep playing tennis for as long as he can.
This season, Seitz won the Western State Conference Men's Individual Tennis Title. Seitz secured the WSC singles title with a dominant 6-2, 6-3 victory and remained humble in his moment of victory. He was very happy and proud that his hard work had paid off. He feels like he reached his goal and he's very thankful for his teammates and coach for being by his side.
"I was really happy with my achievement and my performance . . . I worked pretty hard for it," Seitz said. "I trained every day before and I think I reached my goal at this point. I was really thankful for my teammates and my coach."
He makes sure to stay in condition outside of tennis by trying to go to the gym, conditioning out on the court and having a good balanced diet.
Seitz appreciates the community of the tennis team and enjoys hanging out with his teammates both on and off the court. He likes that the rest of the team are international students just like him and loves to hear the variety of different stories.
Seitz's coach and teammates enjoyed having him around and had nothing but praises for Seitz and weren't surprised when he won the title.
City College men's tennis head coach Danny Etch said that Seitz is a tremendous asset to the team and program. Etch said he brings a lot of experience and that Seitz's work ethic is some of the best he's seen in all of his years during his coaching career. He claims that Seitz brings a lot of inspiration to the team and has shown great improvement.
"He's very self-reliant, he cares about himself, he cares about others, he wants to make others better," Etch said. "He's been here two years and he has shown a lot of improvement over the two years and I think that is a testament to the work he's put in," Etch said.
Seitz's teammates have become inspired by him and say he's an amazing hard-working player who they can learn a lot from.
"Mauritz is a leader, a brother, a person who takes care of everybody on the team and supports everyone," Teammate Ada Guler said."He gets the support from everyone else because he's a good character and he's a great player."
Seitz's hard work has proven to be an amazing addition to the men's tennis team.
Seitz said that his skills have improved since coming to play for City College due to having a great coach and amazing people to spend time with on the court.
"Being here around people that support you and a really nice coach, cool teammates . . . they definitely helped me," Seitz said. "By playing more and more tennis I would say I improved a lot."