Team Members:

Jeff Kaplan ’66 (CPT), Barry Spiegel ’66, Dan Baker ’66, Jamie Kaplan ’69

Coach: Les Naegle

In the Fall of 1962, Freshman Jeff Kaplan, Barry Spiegel and Dan Baker began their tennis careers as members of the varsity team. Improving from their freshman and sophomore years, this trio led a surprising run at the Fall 1964 title finishing tied for second place with a 10-2 record. However, this team graduated their number 2 singles player who had earned a first team All-County selection. The team had no returning letterman or existing JV prospects to complete the foursome to challenge for the title in the Fall of 1965. The team looked close to home, in fact, very close to home where Jeff ’s brother Jamie would begin his freshman year in the next Fall. The three seniors had their answer. But there was a lot of work to be done.

The goal was the Fall 1965 PSAL championship. The quartet had decided that each week they won 2 matches they would have Friday dinner at the Nanuet Restaurant, hoping to join each other 6 times during the coming season. The league had not yet been segmented by class and so the Golden Knights competed with dramati- cally larger schools including Clarkstown (no North or South yet), Spring Valley (no Ramapo yet), Haverstraw and Suffern.

The preseason favorite for the title was Clarkstown. Pearl River and Nanuet were listed as challengers. The rest is history. The first match against favored Clark- stown was a nail biter. Using the regular line-up, with Barry Spiegel playing sec- ond singles and Dan Baker and Jamie Kaplan playing doubles, the team was 1-1 with Jeff’s first singles match still being contested. While Barry had lost at second singles, Dan and Jamie won their doubles match and Jeff, pulled out a 3-set victory against Jerry Itkin, who had beaten Jeff twice in the 1965 Spring season. This was the first step toward a title. In the second match against Clarkstown, Coach Naegle elected to move Dan Baker to second sin- gles and have Barry Spiegel play doubles with Jamie Kaplan. The gambit worked although not necessarily the way Coach had drawn it up. Dan won his second singles match in record time, but Barry and Jamie lost their doubles match. With the match tied 1-1, Jeff again entered the third set with his rival. But this was a different season and Jeff prevailed to give the Knights the win. The Golden Knights were now in the driver’s seat toward the PSAL title. Beating Pearl River in the 10th match of the season clinched a share of the title and two easy wins later the Golden Knights ended an undefeated 12-0 season. This was only Nanuet’s second championship as Dave Hanson’s track team had won the PSAL title in the Spring 1965 season.