Santa Rosa Junior College Men’s Tennis is considered one of the top tennis programs in California.  SRJC is consistently one of the top ranked teams in California and the Bear Cubs are always making a run at the NorCal Team Title.  What separates Santa Rosa JC from most of the other community college tennis programs is the school’s commitment to the student-athlete.  SRJC academics are highly respected and thus, considered one of the top community colleges in the country.  A majority of the student-athletes that play tennis at SRJC transfer to four-year universities, many with tennis scholarships. The Bear Cubs finished the the ’07 season very strong.  They started the team playoffs with a #5 seed and had to travel to DeAnza College, the #4 seed.  SRJC avenged an earlier season loss with a convincing 5-3 victory to set up a semi-final match with Chabot College, the #1 seed. Chabot defeated SRJC 5-2 in a hard fought match that had SRJC leading in two out of the three doubles matches when the match was halted.  Stewart Hutton lost a close match to Stephan Fedderson from College of the Desert 6-4, 6-3 in the state tournament.  Stewart Hutton and Scott Gaynor in doubles lost a close three setter to the eventual champions from Bakersfield. Coach Samonte believes in a balanced approach to developing tennis excellence.  Weight-training, explosive training (Olympic lifts & plyometrics), sprint training, balance, and body awareness exercises are an integral part of the off-court training regime.   Specific singles and doubles drills geared towards competitive preparation are a daily routine for Bear Cub players. A huge emphasis is put on reaching excellence as a team.  Though individual accomplishments are very important, developing a winning spirit and a winning attitude are at the forefront of SRJC tennis.   Growing and maturing as young adults, sportsmanship, and professionalism will always be a requirement of student-athletes at SRJC.