Cary and Peleg: walk-ons turned varsity co-captains

In the fall of 2013, then-sophomores Nick Cary and Roy Peleg tried out as walk-ons for the Tufts men's varsity tennis team. Little did they know that they would soon be permanent team members and that by their senior year they would be selected as team captains.

In 2013, extenuating circumstances set the stage for Cary to join the team. Cary was a sophomore transfer from Trinity College and had walked on to the varsity tennis team there in his first year. Arguably, he had already proven that he had the skill set necessary in order to compete at a varsity level at a NESCAC school. Peleg, on the other hand, had not been recruited anywhere during high school and after a year away from competitive tennis, had spent the summer before his sophomore year rebuilding to a level where he could successfully walk on to the team.

Walking on to a varsity sports team in college has always been regarded as no easy feat, even in a Div. III program like Tufts'. Cary and Peleg had tried out in the fall, spending the entire fall season training with the team every day in an extended assessment by the coach. They would play matches against members on the team; they performed well and were ultimately selected to be permanent team members.

"For me it was [an] uncertain [time] because for two and half months, I didn’t know if the coach would take me on permanently or not," Peleg said.

He noted, however, that despite this uncertainty, he fit in well with the culture of the team. Cary agreed.

“It was a big team to begin with, so the addition of two extra guys didn’t make the guys [already] on the team think about it that much,” Cary said. “It put a little more pressure on us to get along with everyone, which we had no problem doing.”

Although Cary and Peleg were being added to an already large squad, they did not blend in with the crowd, senior tri-captain Rob Jacobson said.

“Nick and Roy really stood out,” Jacobson said. “They held their own and earned their spot on the team. It was an impressive thing to do."

He also agreed that Cary and Peleg fit in well with their new teammates.

“There was no animosity -- we were happy to have them because they could play at a level where they could help our team,” Jacobson said. “At the end of the day, the most important thing is making the team better, and they certainly did that.”

Over the next two years Cary and Peleg, along with three others in their class, including Jacobson, became integral members of the team. Now seniors, they have earned the respect not only from their fellow classmates, but also from underclassman teammates as well.

Peleg and Cary began to compete in the spring season of 2014, contributing to victories over Wesleyan, Conn. College, Brandeis, Colby and Hamilton during their first season.

“My criteria for a walk-on is, 'Could you impact the starting line up -- the top eight?'” coach Karl Gregor said. “So I don't need a guy who can walk in and be better than my last player. I need someone who can come in and help the team win matches. That’s what Nick Cary and Roy [Peleg] were able to do that year.”

There was a general consensus among the seniors that the presence of walk-ons was a positive force, in that it pushed the team members to work harder and be better.

“I think its good because we had more competition,” senior Nik Telkedzhiev said. “They started from the bottom and tried to climb all the way, and they have. This was definitely motivating for me. It made me push harder and try to get better every day."

Both Cary and Peleg have been elected senior captains alongside Jacobson. Although Telkedzhiev and senior Jay Glickman do not carry the title of captain, their role on the team is no less important, Cary, Peleg and Jacobson said.

“It's a very cool thing that they were able to walk on and then were able to lead," Jacobson said. "It shows a lot about who they are as people."

The captains were voted on by each member of the team, as well as the head and assistant coaches. Peleg felt that for him, being able to serve as captain in his senior year was a huge achievement.

“Its been shaped in part by the fact that for both Nick and [me], this experience wasn’t handed to us, and we didn’t take it for granted,” Peleg said. “So to have that kind of appreciation at the end of the day has given me the kind of perspective that I hope [will] be of value in a captain.”

Since 2013, no one else has walked on to the team. Although Gregor holds tryouts every year, he has said that no one has come close to the level necessary to play on the team.

This is perhaps due to the increase in rigor of recruiting that has occurred over the past three to four seasons. Before 2012, recruits for Tufts were generally rated in the two-star range. In the last three years, however, both the number and quality of recruits have increased. In 2013, Tufts had a four-star recruit (Glickman), several three-stars and the Bulgarian under-18 No. 2 (Telkedzhiev). Following that, Tufts has consistently had strong recruiting classes. In 2014, Tufts recruited eight new players, four of whom were either three or four stars.

“It would be very rare for a kid to come here [who] I didn’t know about,” Gregor said. “I have a wide net in my recruiting that if someone were good enough to play, I would have known about them before.”

The sentiment was echoed by Glickman.

“We have gotten better and better each year with overall talent, seriousness of the program, quality of the recruits," Glickman said. “This is largely due to the attractiveness of the new athletic facility and our new coach.”

Although five seniors are graduating in 2016, the size of the team means that it will be an uphill battle for potential walk-ons next fall. Four-star recruit Nathan Niemiec has recently committed to Tufts, as will several others throughout the coming months.

The Jumbos look ahead to the spring season, where they will be competing for the NESCAC Championship. The three new recruits this year have already shown themselves to be strong players, with all of them contributing to victories in the fall season.