Tennis’ Trask right on track
His teammates affectionately call him “hummingbird,” but for Jason Trask, the No. 3 singles player on the Utah State University men’s tennis team, his nickname goes well beyond his ability to run balls down.
“There’s a few reasons [they call me hummingbird],” Trask said. I’m pretty quick and I eat tons. That’s probably the main thing is that I can eat a ton.”
Regardless of the reason, the sophomore from St. George has made his presence felt, posting a team-best 11-5 record in singles play despite having to make the switch from No. 5 to No. 3 singles shortly after the start of the spring season.
Ever since an injury to Jonah Nelson before the start of the UNLV Invitational in February, Trask has made the move to the three spot – something he has done a great job adjusting to, Head Coach Chris Wright said.
“I know that he can win at different spots on the team and he’s done a really good job,” Wright said. “[However], if I had my choice I would still like to have him at the four or five spot, because he’s almost a for sure thing [winning].”
While the move to No. 3 singles has involved playing tougher opponents, Trask said it has helped him to raise his level of play.
“It’s been a lot tougher, I think, mainly because I’m tough on myself,” he said. “The competition is a lot better, but I feel like I’ve risen to that.”
Not only does playing in the No. 3 spot force him to raise his level of play, Wright said it also forces him to be more aggressive.
“He has to take the initiative and dictate the tempo, otherwise [his opponent] will come to the net on him and try to end the point,” Wright said. “They would be dumb to play his game and try to rally [with him] forever.”
Known for his lateral movement on the court and his ability to track balls down, Trask said this ability allows him to demoralize his opponent.
“I think it’s a huge factor,” he said. “[Some of my opponents] get really frustrated, and that’s probably my biggest weapon – is not to beat them, but them to beat themselves. They get frustrated then they start missing easy shots when they shouldn’t be missing.”
While his on-court fitness and ability to counter-punch is something Trask excels at, he is anything but a one-dimensional player, Wright said.
In fact, Trask is much more adept at ripping the ball than he was his freshman year, Wright said.
“He’s added two or three dimensions to his game,” he said. “His freshman year he was pretty one-dimensional. He was excellent at what he did, but there’s a lot to be said about dictating tempo and being able to come in and shorten the point on your own time-frame.”
Only beaten in straight sets once this season, Trask didn’t even begin playing tennis until he was a freshman in high school. Before moving to St. George prior to his freshman year, Trask was a soccer player, having played six straight years of club soccer.
When his family moved to Southern Utah, he discovered soccer wasn’t nearly as popular. However, several of his friends played tennis, and he was hooked from then on, he said.
“They really didn’t have much soccer in St. George, so I started playing tennis,” he said.
The rest is history.
With still two years of eligibility remaining after this season, Trask said he hopes to follow in the footsteps of former teammate Jared Burnham.
He said after a respectable freshman campaign Burnham was able to improve his game every year – eventually garnering all-conference honors his senior year.
“I just want to continually keep on getting better,” Trask said. “A good example a few years back was Jared Burnham. His freshman year he did OK, [but] he just built upon that until he had an awesome senior year.”
When asked which players he idolizes and tries to emulate, Trask said he really admired Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Michael Chang when he was in high school.
“When I was younger I picked three players, and that was Sampras for his serve, Agassi for his [ground] strokes and Chang for his ability to run shots down.”
However, he said if he had to narrow it down to one person, he said it would be Monica Seles.
“If I were to pick a single person it would be Monica Seles,” he said. “I absolutely love her as far as her mental [game is]. She’s just an overall solid player.”
In a game that is widely considered to be at least 90 percent mental, Wright said Trask’s mental toughness allows him to be the consistent player he is.
“It’s nice to not really worry too much about what his mind frame is going to be,” he said. “He’s set a really high standard for himself and he does focus and work really hard.”