Becky Shtilkind laid the foundation of Leon Goldstein’s now dominant girls tennis program.
Before the Dolphins were winning city titles and Mayor’s Cup crowns, Shtilkind was winning in anonymity,
“She changed Goldstein tennis from being basically a recreational tennis club to a true tennis team,” recently retired Goldstein coach Victoria D’Orazio said.
The Stony Brook-bound dynamo was rewarded Monday night with the PSAL’s Wingate award, given to the top senior in each sport, for girls tennis Monday night at the Brooklyn Marriott.
It was very deserving. Shtilkind was coming off an individual title in the Mayor’s Cup just a week after leading Goldstein to the team Mayor’s Cup crown and an upset of St. Francis Prep, which carried an unprecedented 203-match winning streak into the match.
Denis Gostev
Leon Goldstein's Becky Shtilkind won the PSAL Wingate Award for girls tennis on Monday.
“It’s the perfect way to finish my career,” she said of the Wingate Award. “Being chosen out of all the girls who play tennis, it was a huge honor to be selected. I’m glad I was able to perform so well over the years.”
Shtilkind, who D'Orazio said was also named the school's senior Athlete of the Year recently, chose Goldstein because of academics, but she quickly changed the program. Having such a high-level player drew more talented players, such as fellow singles players Destina Grunin and Elizabeth Tsvetkov. The team got better each year, finally breaking through with a PSAL Class A title last spring after falling to Cardozo in the finals the year before. The Dolphins repeated as city champions this year despite Shtilkind missing the match with a serious foot injury and went on to shock St. Francis in the Mayor’s Cup.
“Going into high school as a freshman we had no team at all. Nobody knew what Goldstein was, where it was or anything,” she said. “Over the past few years, building a team and making the program dominant really is impressive. I didn’t think Goldstein would end up so strong. I didn’t know who would come. It depended on girls coming in, how hard they wanted to work, how hard they wanted to push themselves.”
D’Orazio said Shtilkind set the tone. She led by example, by all the tournaments she entered, all the extra time she put in before and after practice and how successful she was.
“She was the turning point to the program,” the coach said.
Shtilkind is excited about continuing her career at Stony Brook, for an on-the-rise program under coach Gary Glassman. The school has been making plenty of noise athletically as its baseball team is playing in the College World Series for the first time this weekend. Shitlkind was unaware of the team’s success until just recently when she inadvertently found their game on television.
“I’m going to watch them this weekend,” she said. “I don’t even know the rules, but I’m still going to support my Seawolves.”
That doesn’t mean Shtilkind will forget about Goldstein. She leaves behind a legacy of excellent, one she expects to continue for at least the next few years with Grunin and Tsvetkov, among others, returning.
“I’m confident in my team,” she said. “They will be able to carry over strong to next year and win another title without me and maybe Mayor’s Cup, too.”
zbraziller@nypost.com
Leon Goldstein, Becky Shtilkind ebook download, Goldstein coach Victoria D’Orazio, girls tennis, Shtilkind, the Dolphins, The Dolphins, GostevLeon Goldstein, St. Francis Prep, St. Francis
No comments:
Post a Comment