Up until high school, Patrick Harvey had played soccer his whole life. As a ninth grader, he gave up soccer and tried out for the tennis team. Harvey was placed on JV. He improved greatly by the end of the season. However, he was still somewhat of a non-factor for the program.
But the Panthers would need help from Harvey the next year. After graduating 6 out of the 11 members of its Varsity squad, Boulder had somewhat of a rebuild. They brought in a new coach and brought up many players from Junior Varsity. However, when the first match rolled around, Harvey was placed on JV — again. Despite working hard over the offseason, he still didn’t scratch the Varsity lineup.
Harvey dominated in his first few JV games and showed his skill once again in the first week of practice. And it paid off. Coach Ryan Berman moved Harvey up to one doubles, skipping over the spots of 8 other players. In his first match, he was dominant. He and Blake Curl ‘25 beat a good Fort Collins duo in three sets. It was apparent that Harvey could hold his own at the Varsity level. The rest of the season was up and down for Harvey, as he and Curl battled it out in a tough schedule, emerging with a winning record. Nevertheless, Harvey’s progress was astronomical. He had barely played tennis only a year before, and was now the 5th-ranked player in the school by the end of the season.
But the work wasn’t over for Harvey. He wasn’t satisfied with his spot on the team. Like the summer before, he played and played and played before his Junior season. And like years before, he came in underregarded. He was placed at one doubles for the second year, two spots below Curl, his partner from the previous year. Harvey says, “I was a little disappointed at first, but I was able to still have a good season”. He finished off with a 10-5 record and a trip to the state tournament.
Harvey entered this season gunning for the number one singles. He beat the number three singles player for the coveted top spot on the team. In a matter of three years, Harvey went from a tennis novice to playing at Colorado’s highest level of youth tennis. Harvey sheepishly said of his achievement, “Being placed at the one singles spot showed how much my hard work paid off. It’s a great feeling to be able to lead the team.”
Progressing alongside Harvey is his younger brother, Calvin Harvey ‘27. Calvin says that playing on the same team as Patrick “drives (him) to be better, because he is the older and more experienced player.” Calvin, currently playing in the one doubles position, hopes to take Patrick’s position next year.
While Calvin might be part of the future of the program, Patrick is the now. The elder Harvey wants to go out with a bang. On the court, he prioritizes a victory at all costs. Harvey says that during each match, he thinks to himself, “What can I do better to win?” On the season, Harvey holds a 3-2 record (the team as a whole is 2-3), with commanding wins over Horizon, Erie, and Centaurus. He has his sights set on September 9, when the Panthers face off against the Knights. The Fairview match is always to the entire team, but the fact that Harvey is friends with most of the Fairview players makes the matchup even more riveting.
No matter how the season goes for Harvey, he has a lot to be proud of. As he puts it, “I’ve grown hugely as a player since my freshman year at BHS. It’s been a journey since barely playing before my freshman year to making the jump to varsity as a sophomore to becoming a one singles player this year. I’ve put in a ton of hard work, so it’s nice to see it pay off.” Patrick Harvey made himself into a tennis player.
