Tennis at an inflection point: High school title races and a teen-led recycling world record push

tennis is hitting a turning point in Southern California, where competitive high school programs are entering a new season amid roster churn and returning champions, while L. A. -area teens are trying to set a world record by collecting used tennis balls and pickleballs for recycling.

What happens when winning programs reload and the league title becomes the bullseye?

In Long Beach, the 2025 Moore League boys’ tennis season is shaping up around ambition, continuity, and turnover at the same time. Millikan enters with momentum after winning its second CIF-SS Division 4 title in the past five years, and head coach Spencer Pozgay framed the immediate priority as reclaiming the Moore League title.

Millikan’s confidence is paired with a practical challenge: major roster change after 11 players graduated last spring. Pozgay pointed to returning underclassmen from last year’s CIF championship squad as central to bridging that gap. Andrew Abdelmelek swept all of his matches in the CIF finals, Issac Kim won the championship set in doubles, and Ziggy Rouret lost only three sets combined throughout the playoffs. Pozgay also highlighted the difficulty of contributing as a freshman in high-stakes matches, and he signaled an expectation that those experiences translate into leadership now.

New faces are also being elevated into defined roles. Freshmen Tyler Mungcal and Austin Stoskopf were described as having already established roles while continuing to improve, while sophomores Eli Cooke and Sam Fies moved up from JV into varsity responsibilities after showing dedication over two years.

The league race is not limited to one contender. The Bruins are aiming to defend a three-time Moore League title while simultaneously developing a nearly new starting lineup. Head coach Nick Medina identified senior Jake Pavia as a headliner and said he has committed to playing college tennis. Medina also pointed to Kaya Yakar to lead doubles after improvement last season, with team captain Maximus Uong expected to provide energy and leadership. Senior Oliver Moller, described as relatively new to tennis, earned a varsity role in doubles following noticeable improvement over the past couple of years.

Poly, meanwhile, is positioning itself as a credible challenger. Head coach Ricardo Montecinos said the team is in contention for the league title and is preparing for a deep run in CIF. Poly’s core includes senior Gabe Simms and sophomore Luke Teter in singles, with seniors Alex Fearing and Stuart Turnour as doubles captains. Juniors Andrew Guerrero and Destin Lund and sophomore Nick Cheung round out the doubles lineup.

What if a world record attempt turns tennis ball waste into a year-round civic issue?

At the same time the spring season takes shape on court, another storyline is building off court: a youth-led recycling initiative focused on used tennis balls and pickleballs. A group of Los Angeles County high school students is attempting to set a world record by collecting thousands of tennis balls and pickleballs for recycling through an initiative called “Another Bounce. ”

The effort is being led by a dozen students serving on the newly launched Junior Board of Habits of Waste, a Brentwood-based nonprofit focused on changing habits and systems to help combat climate change. The students are collecting used balls locally within a 30-mile radius of Pacific Palisades and also accepting shipped donations to a Santa Monica warehouse. They are planning a community collection event on April 19, with a goal to gather donations by Earth Day on April 22 (ET).

The initiative is framed around the scale and persistence of the waste problem. Another Bounce cites an estimate that 500 million tennis and pickleballs are thrown away each year worldwide. Stanford University is cited for a U. S. figure of 125 million tennis balls ending up in landfills annually. United Nations Regional Information Centre data is cited for a recycling rate of only about 1 percent of tennis balls. Another Bounce also states the tennis and pickleballs are not biodegradable and can take more than 400 years to decompose.

Leadership voices are explicitly tying the project to a broader attempt to reshape norms in sports. Habits of Waste founder and president Sheila Morovati has said the initiative aims to get the sports world involved in sustainability and questioned routine wastefulness in tennis and pickleball. Student organizers have also described the work as a refusal to wait for adults to solve the problem, presenting the project as a practical intervention: collecting, storing, counting, and pushing for systemic change.

Beyond collection, the students are advocating for recycling improvements with manufacturers and elected officials in Southern California. Their advocacy has included speaking at city council meetings in Beverly Hills, Burbank, Santa Monica, Malibu and Los Angeles to push for ordinances requiring parks, schools and private clubs to recycle tennis and pickleballs. They also launched a public email campaign urging companies including Wilson, Penn, Franklin, Dunlop and Selkirk to establish nationwide take-back and recycling programs. Morovati described the longer-term aim as “true circularity, ” while noting the immediate record attempt faces a straightforward logistical barrier: storing the balls until they can be counted.

The project includes teen athletes from several L. A. -area high schools, including Crossroads, Brentwood, Loyola, Harvard Westlake and Windward. Among the participants are Ford and Boone Casady, 16-year-old twin brothers who attend Crossroads School in Santa Monica; Ford is described as the No. 1 junior pickleball player nationally in the under-18 division, and the brothers are described as the top-ranked junior doubles team in the country.

What happens next when competition and sustainability collide in the same season?

Taken together, the two storylines show tennis being defined by both performance pressure and a widening definition of responsibility. On the competitive side, the Moore League picture is being reshaped by a familiar cycle: champions attempting to repeat, established programs rebuilding lineups, and coaches leaning on leadership development as much as match results. Millikan’s stated focus on reclaiming the Moore League title, the Bruins’ pursuit of a fourth straight league crown amid a new starting group, and Poly’s claim that it is in contention all point to a season where standings could hinge on how quickly new varsity contributors settle into pressure moments.

On the sustainability side, “Another Bounce” is testing whether a sports-specific waste stream can be turned into a measurable public action. If teens can coordinate collection within a defined radius, accept shipped donations, and convert the record attempt into policy and manufacturer engagement, the effort could push tennis and pickleball organizations to treat recycling as standard operating practice rather than a special campaign.

There are also clear limits visible inside the facts. The students themselves have identified storage and counting as a hurdle, even as they broaden outreach. And while groups such as Ridwell and RecycleBalls are described as currently shredding and pelletizing collected balls into new products, Morovati has said the long-term goal is for manufacturers to handle recycling themselves—an outcome that depends on corporate decisions and sustained public pressure rather than the record attempt alone.

For readers trying to understand the moment: the season ahead is not only about who holds trophies, but also about what the sport chooses to do with what it discards. In the months around Earth Month (ET), tennis will be judged both by results on the scoreboard and by whether the push for “Another Bounce” proves that the culture around tennis can change as visibly as the competition does—tennis