LAMP tennis team awarded championship rings in special ceremony
LAMP athletic director Robb McGaughey presents championship rings to the school’s tennis team after winning the state title. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
It took nearly four months, but there was finally a ring ceremony at school to honor the state champion LAMP boys’ tennis team.
After finishing as 4A-5A runner up in 2021 and 2022, the Golden Tigers broke through with a championship in 2023, the school’s second state title overall. Much of the excitement at the Montgomery magnet school, however, was replaced by the grind of spring semester exams.
“This school is crazy with academics,” senior Ian Kim said. “We won, but then we get faced with a bunch of AP (advanced placement) exams. That was hectic, but still a memory I treasure.”
When the championship rings arrived earlier this month, LAMP athletic director Robb McGaughey thought it would be a nice gesture to honor the champions.
“We finished in the spring and exams came up and we really didn’t get to recognize the guys for their accomplishment,” McGaughey said, “and winning a state championship is a huge accomplishment. This particular group has come so close the last two years, we just felt like this would be a great way to reward them and show them the recognition they deserve.
“It’s also a fun way to celebrate LAMP’s performance in the athletic side of things. We get to remind these students that in addition to being excellent students, we actually have some great athletic teams here at LAMP.”
Nine of the 10 players on last year’s state championship team were honored on Friday. No. 1 singles and doubles player Edward Lee, a senior on last year’s team, is at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Eight of the other nine players return for this season, with Wooseong Lee transferring to Brew Tech.
In addition to Wooseong Lee, who traveled from Brew Tech for the ceremony, the other players honored included Ian Shin, Ian Kim, Sunho Kim, Wonjun Lee, Minsoo Park, Richard Chen, Andy Lim and Andy Baek.
“It was amazing, getting recognized by the school,” Ian Kim said. “We don’t do a lot of group stuff, like announcements, so this is kind of something new we’ve never felt. A lot of people last year knew the tennis team won, but they didn’t know what it meant to us because we’ve been trying for so long. It feels good to get recognized like that.”
The school’s trophy case has one state championship trophy honoring the 2016 boys’ cross country team and 10 runner-up trophies that are primarily for cross country and tennis as well as one for baseball and one for softball. The school won the cross country title when its facility was located on Hall Street so the boys’ tennis championship is the first one celebrated at the school’s current location.
“It’s really nice that we get honored with a ceremony,” senior Sunho Kim said. “I know some other schools that won, people have one course and play tennis the whole day. At LAMP, we all take six or seven AP courses and have to take AP exams all the time. For us to get honored with our rings is nice, but it’s also nice to get honored for our academics.”
Ian Kim won the No. 2 doubles title in 2022, but felt personally responsible for the runner-up team finish to Madison Academy after losing to No. 2 singles champion Madison Academy’s Houston Jacques in the opening round, giving the Mustangs the opportunity to secure enough points for the team victory.
“I still remember both (finishes in 2022 and 2023) very vividly because it was very high tense,” he said. “And knowing your whole team is watching? Every point matters. On the way back, the whole bus ride (this year) was great. We had lost two years in a row, in heartbreaking fashion. It was so relieving that we won one.”
“The past few years were really tough,” Sunho Kim added. “It was all little matches we lost that we felt like we should have won but we didn’t because we were nervous. When we were finally able to lift up that trophy, it felt really good.”
With only one senior graduating, don’t be surprised if LAMP is celebrating another boys’ tennis title next May.
“Now we’re defending champions, we need to defend our title,” Sunho Kim said. “We have more pressure but with Mr. (Jordan) Berry as our coach, he’s scheduled one of the best schedules ever, so I feel like we have a really good shot of winning even though we lost Edward.”