It’s mostly a whole new ball game for the Park boys' tennis team this season. Park lost eight seniors to graduation last spring, meaning the Wolfpack lineup will be filled mostly by newcomers …
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It’s mostly a whole new ball game for the Park boys' tennis team this season. Park lost eight seniors to graduation last spring, meaning the Wolfpack lineup will be filled mostly by newcomers this season.
Park’s top singles player senior Caleb Swigart advanced to the section quarterfinals last season, while the top doubles team of seniors Noah Holgren and Tommy Lucas went 15-6 on the season. All of those players, plus five other seniors, must be replaced in the lineup this time around.
At No. 2 doubles, senior Matt Petersen and junior Ethan Cole won their opening match in section play a year ago before losing in the second round.
Cole returns and will fill one of the top spots for the Wolfpack, although where in the lineup remains a bit up in the air. He split time last season between lower singles and two and three doubles. Other veterans back with varsity experience include sophomore Dylan Conn and junior Tyler McKeague.
“Those are kind of the players that had varsity experience,” said longtime Park tennis coach Tony Townsend. “Otherwise, we’re going to be calling on our top jayvee players.”
McKeague, Cole and Conn will all be battling for one of the top singles or doubles spots.
“Those three are going to be big time contributors,” said Townsend. “Everything else is just going to be kind of wide open. We’ll see how the cards fall.”
“it’s going to be a learning process,” added Townsend. “The big bright spot is we’re talented, we’re just very inexperienced and very young. We’re pretty excited just because we kind of have a brand-new fresh table here and we can just develop like crazy and just watch these kids progress significantly from the start to the end, and they will. They’re eager to learn. A lot of raw talent, we just have to polish them up and get them used to varsity tennis in the Suburban East Conference which is pretty tricky.”
Park opens the season Tuesday, April 1, at St. Paul Harding, then host St. Paul Johnson Thursday, April 3, starting at 4 p.m.
