Tennis looks to young players to help lead team

John Ostermann, Online Editor-in-Chief

After a dominant 2015-2016 season, the boys tennis team is going to be searching for answers and leadership. Previously the tennis teams have been senior dominated with upperclassmen leading the way but that will not be the case this year. The team has two seniors and a few people who are returning varsity players.

“Past teams I’ve been on have mostly been juniors and seniors for varsity,” junior Frank Hanson said. “But this year is a lot of sophomores and some freshman even. I hope we can develop [players] better this year and really have a presence in state next year.”

With many seniors leaving the team last year, the tennis team will be searching for leadership. Senior Bryce Easton will be looking to fill that roll.

“I am going to spend less time on myself and more time playing against each of these players individually,” Easton said. “So I will be doing more playing down in practice in order to help them perform. I also plan to bring in other players from last year to give everyone else more practice against the higher level players.”

The team hopes to be able to bring the team back to state and are in search of another league title. But with inexperienced players it will be a much more difficult task. The younger players will need to step up and help Easton lead the team.

  1. “Bryce is going to be our main leader,” sophomore Michael Turnley said. “We have a lot of sophomores so we need to step up and take leadership too.”

The players qualify individually and they try to gain medals and points to help the team place. Easton is the top placer returning to the team, he finished in fifth place in state last year and hopes to place even better than that this year.

“I actually have pretty high expectations for myself since I took fifth last year,” Easton said. “[I hope to] win Centennial League as well as place in the top eight in state again. I also want to make sure I get [the other players] ready for the higher level players.”

The Salina Central Invitational meet scheduled for Saturday was cancelled due to poor weather. The team will have its next meet today in the Washburn Rural Quad.