The Names Behind The Nicknames

I like being part of teams, but I’ve always considered tennis an individual sport masquerading as team sport. I feel the same way about baseball to a certain extent. You can argue, but my sports psychology professor used my exact words the other day, so I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I always thought camaraderie wasn’t important for individual or coacting sports. I learned in sports psych that this is untrue.

People join teams because of attractions to a group for task-based or social reasons. Cohesion or group integration is built on collective task-based or social goals. Cohesion maximizes performance and motivation. In our case, we have both kinds of cohesion. That’s why I’ll look to my mates for support when I’m down a mini-break in the 3rd set tie-breaker.

In order to bolster cohesion and the Functionalist group identity, we often use nicknames. When I coached little league, a mom once told me that her son felt left out because he was the only kid on the team without a nickname. Yeah, nicknames are important.

I met some very kind parents at the Stevens match who were asking me about nicknames so thanks for the idea and let me give a thumbs up to all the parents and readers.

I’ll now explain our nicknames thus far so that you can be in the loop when you come to all our matches. Here’s the deal, because I love teasers and gimmicks, I’ll reveal half the nicknames below and if you read it and click the link for “follow” this blog at the bottom of the page, I’ll reveal the other half next time.

Mike: With a game like his, you don’t need a nickname., but we sometimes call him “Big Mike” or “MJ” becaue Jay is his middle name. We have two middle names of Jay and one of Clay on the team.

Andrew: “The Goose” not because of Tony Siragusa but because his last name is Guzick which sounds like goose. After he stretches, we say “The Goose is loose!”

Josh Kessler: Coach Kroll called him “Mr. Defense” at practice once. It stuck. Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, Gary Payton, Ray Lewis, and Josh Kessler. All great defenders in their respective sports.

Nick Jasso: “Stretch” because he likes to stretch and he looks like a stretched-out version of his brother Josh.

Kartik: Haven’t come up with much yet. He says it’s “Kar.” Start your engines. Vroom.

Look for the remaining nicknames, including my own in the next episode.