Bob Shwalb, Special to the Record
it comes to having luxuries, Joe Iwanski is the Sultan of North Jersey tennis.
The Dwight-Englewood boys coach has one of the top singles players in the state in Daniel Nuzhny as well as two of the state’s top doubles combinations and more.
This explains why the Bulldogs’ only losses this year were to eventual NJSIAA Tournament of Champions winner Montgomery and runner-up Newark Academy.
“Any team would love to have a superstar like Daniel,” Iwanski said. “Plus we have three or four other kids who’d play first singles for most schools in Bergen County. But with Daniel on the team, they have to play lower positions.”
With its lineup of gems, Dwight-Englewood is the 2017 North Jersey Boys Tennis Team of the Year.
This spring, the Bulldogs won their third consecutive Bergen County Tournament Small-Schools championship.
Playing without co-captain Nuzhny, who was at another tournament, the locals won all 16 of their county matches, with Rick Sivarak and co-captain Nikhil Kokra taking the second- and third-singles titles and the duos of Brandan Grill/Shanay Amin and Cameron Janssens/Tejas Akula winning the doubles crowns.
That’s the lineup Dwight-Englewood sent out against perennial state powerhouse Newark Academy in the Non-Public, North B state sectional finals. The Bulldogs came within a hair of ending the Minutemen’s three-year run as state champions as they lost a 3-2 decision. The match included a trio of three-set matches, two of which were won by Newark Academy.
“I’ve coached this team for 10 years and that was the toughest time I’ve ever had getting over a match,” Iwanski said. “We had it within our grasp but we just couldn’t close them out.
“Give credit to Newark Academy, though. They’ve got a great program.”
This year’s Dwight-Englewood varsity also included Ben Levin, Neclan Kumar and Sascha Ghobadi.
