Sweating as the sun beat down on the unshaded court, and in a close match against a familiar foe, James Wood High School’s Josh Lucas made a decision.
He challenged himself to push through the heat, the pain in his braced right ankle, and the mounting pressure of the playoff match’s high stakes, no matter how difficult it would be.
Seeded first for Region 4D North, Lucas faced North No. 4 Handley senior Jack Boye — whom he had defeated twice in the regular season — in the quarterfinals of the Region 4D singles tournament on May 26 at Handley’s Slaughter Tennis Pavilion.
The Colonels junior worked hard to hold an early lead, but started to fade. Boye made a run, winning eight consecutive games to put the James Wood star in a hole.
“[Boye] played out of his mind,” Lucas recalled. “Catching lines, sending backhand crosses at such a tough angle, every time.”
Lucas clawed back into the match, winning the second set 7-5 after losing the first set 6-4. His comeback appeared to be in full swing.
But after he double-faulted on his first serve of the tiebreaker set, Boye capitalized and ultimately went on to secure the win, 10-4. After an undefeated regular season, one of the most successful seasons in James Wood’s history was over.
Despite playing injured in the Region 4D tournament — Lucas suffered a right ankle dislocation on March 16 against Millbrook, which is why his ankle was braced — Lucas insisted his physical condition wasn’t to blame for his loss to Boye. Instead, he lauded the performance of his opponent.
“I think my ankle definitely affected me but it wasn’t bad enough to use it as an excuse,” Lucas said. “Jack was playing really well and I wasn’t. He was just better that day and there was nothing I could do to change that.”
For the second consecutive year, Lucas is The Winchester Star Boys’ Tennis Player of the Year. Colonels head coach Tanner Jones believes Lucas’ 2025 campaign was yet another feather in Lucas’ rapidly filling cap, to the benefit of James Wood’s athletics department. Lucas also went 13-4 in doubles with Ander Pratt-Perez, falling to Handley in the Region 4D quarters.
“Last year was historic in its own way because he was James Wood’s first-ever [boys’ tennis player] to earn Player of the Year Honors by the Winchester Star,” said Jones, who was an assistant coach last year. “[Lucas’ 2025 season] means a lot to James Wood, especially because of the tremendous success of our spring sports, so to be able to add tennis to that list is going to do a lot to help build the entire culture at James Wood right now.”
But after going undefeated in the regular season, Lucas was disappointed with the way his campaign came to a close.
“It felt like a waste of a season, which I know it wasn’t and sounds like a crazy thing to say because I went undefeated in the regular season,” Lucas said. “It just felt that way after the way it ended.”
Personal frustrations aside, Lucas’ 2025 campaign was truly historic. His perfect 16-0 singles record marks the first time since at least 1987 that a James Wood player finished the regular season with an unblemished résumé.
Jones said that, above all else, he was most impressed with Lucas’ work ethic this past season.
“In today’s day and age, you worry about the amount that you’re able to get kids out on the court and the amount of work they’ll be willing to put in,” Jones said. “With Josh, I’ve had almost the opposite problem, where we’ve had to have conversations about load management. He’s just been an outstanding presence in my first full year as a head coach.”
Lucas has worked relentlessly on his game, thanks in part to the special relationship he shares with his long-time private coach and Winchester Country Club tennis director, Jamie Morgan.
Since Lucas was 11, Morgan has been his teacher and mentor, working long hours to hone the left-hander’s skills at WCC.
Over almost a decade of working together, Lucas has come to rely on Morgan for more than just technique adjustments or suggestions to improve his footwork.
“I heavily lean on him for advice and support,” Lucas said. “When I first started taking lessons from him, I was in a rough mental space. But now, whenever I’m feeling unconfident in my ability, I watch a video he took of me hitting serves five years ago to see how far I’ve come. I look at that video almost every day.”
To Lucas, confidence is more valuable than a new racket or pair of shoes. It fuels every other facet of his game, enabling him to perform at such a high level.
Thanks to his work ethic over the years, his confidence has increased dramatically, directly improving both his physical and mental health.
“Back before I started getting lessons, I was honestly not in the best shape,” Lucas said. “Once I started, from the summer of seventh grade going into eighth grade, I lost 50 pounds. Ever since, I’ve trained more seriously to stay fit.”
In the runup to the 2025 season, drills were a regular part of Lucas’ training regimen. Regular practice on individual skills became a fundamental pillar of his offseason development.
When he wasn’t drilling with Morgan or working on his game on his own, Lucas played in dozens of tournaments to improve his competition ranking, and even practiced with members of Shenandoah University’s team. Over the winter, one of them was Dominick Suwak, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year this spring.
“That helped my game tremendously,” said Lucas of practicing with Suwak. “Playing with a guy that I know is better than me was so helpful.”
Despite his impressive record, this season wasn’t always so easy for Lucas.
The lefthander recalled a singles match at Sherando to open the season on March 25 that particularly challenged him.
Recovering from pneumonia, Lucas got out to a 7-2 lead in stormy conditions against Sherando’s Greyson Foltz, but Foltz rattled off three games in a row to come close to tying the match.
“I’m starting to freak out a little bit,” Lucas remembered. “So I told myself to close it out and just finish it then and there.”
Lucas did. Another time Lucas didn’t feel 100 percent physically was the late-season Millbrook match, where his injury actually occurred before the match even started.
“I was walking to the tennis courts,” Lucas said. “As I headed down the steps, I missed one, landed on my ankle, and heard a pop. I immediately thought, ‘Oh, this is just wonderful.'”
Not wanting to risk a forfeit, Lucas played through the pain and won his match 8-2 to maintain his perfect regular season record.
Jones and his coaching staff were immensely impressed with Lucas’ ability to overcome physical adversity during the match.
“The amount of toughness he displayed, despite barely being able to move and to construct a game plan around a weakness that he didn’t have 20 minutes earlier and still pull that win out against a very good opponent impressed me and everyone who watched,” Jones said. “We were very, very proud of the grit that he displayed that day.”
For next season, Lucas wants to go undefeated in the regular season once again, and be more resilient whenever he’s in a difficult situation.
“I want to bring that confidence in my ability for next season,” Lucas said. “Recently, when I haven’t been confident in my groundstrokes, I’ve just been hitting balls anyway, no matter how I’m feeling. That’s what I want to bring in next season, especially into regionals.”
He has ambitions to play tennis in college and hopes to attend a school in Virginia. Like any talented athlete, Lucas has learned life lessons that he believes have helped him reach this point, and that others can adopt, as well.
“Anyone can do it,” Lucas said. “If you really put your mind to it and put in the work, anyone has the potential and opportunity to get there. Instead of comparing yourself to others, compare yourself to the past you, because that’s what really matters.”
Jones said he expects Lucas to do great things at the college level someday, and thinks his star will continue improving the mental aspects of his game moving forward.
“With his work ethic, I have no doubt that he’ll be able to reach the goals that he sets for himself,” Jones said. “The next step for him is going to be, rather than always being in control, learning to respond to other players’ abilities and create his own moments.”
Jones believed that Lucas’ ability to remain humble while being so dominant in his craft makes him stand out as more than just a great player.
“He’s just a good kid,” Jones said. “It would be really easy to be cocky and arrogant when you’re as good at tennis as he is, because this sport is really an island. How he decides to act is entirely up to him. He’s been such a great player-coach to his teammates, an outstanding role model, and a good friend, and I’m really proud of him.”a