Reloading season for Valley tennis[Using blank template.]

Seniors — Front from left: Tanner Gill, Gary Babcock, Andrew Balli, Isaiah Martinez. Back from left: Colton Jones, Steven Binau, Braydon Moncivais. Not pictured: Tom Adams, Isaac Beale, Tristen Schwarzenberger.


Reloading season for Valley tennis
By Randy Fisher
Last Updated: March 31, 2016

In 2015, the Valley Center High School tennis team returned four of its top six players from the previous year. That made for an experienced team and a successful season.

This year is different as one player — Colton Jones — returns from last year's regional team. Despite that, Dean Schulz prefers to look at his 34th season with the boys as reloading, rather than rebuilding.

Jones came within one win of qualifying for state last year in doubles. After that, the Hornets are young but talented. That talent starts with last year's junior varsity.

"Our JV was really strong last year. We won the league really easy," Schulz said. "Both our doubles (teams) were in the finals against each other. No. 1 singles won the tournament. No. 2 singles lost in the first round in a tiebreaker and won the next three. We feel really good about our solid talent."

Sophomore Garrett Rogers is at No. 1 singles with junior Alex Schul at No. 2. The doubles competition is close between Jones and sophomore Scott McCune, and freshmen Colby Swift and Hayden Brauer.

"It's been a lot of fun breaking in a new partner," said Jones. "The last two years I played with Chance Berschauer."

Rogers seems to be making the transition from primarily a JV player to the top of the varsity heap.

"There is a little bit more pressure because JV is pretty laid back," he said. "I'm not too worried about it. Coach has been phrasing this as a reloading year. We're all just going to try our best to get better."

Rogers, Schul and McCune all logged time on the varsity courts last year. Ditto for seniors Braden Moncivais and Andrew Balli, and juniors Michael Harlicker and Ethan Bauguess.

"We've got the experience," Schulz said. "It's just finding who is going to step up into the positions."

The positions are different this year for most of the returning players. That could be Valley's Achilles' heel early in the season.

"I think that's going to be the biggest thing," Schulz said. "I don't think Colby and Hayden played together last year as eighth-graders. They played together some over the summer. Garrett played mostly doubles last year. Colton is our most experienced doubles player, but his partner, Scott, played singles. Alex played all singles last year."

Still, the players seem to realize the potential of this team in 2016 and beyond.  

"The only major drop that is made going from this year to last year, as far as skill is concerned, we lost a good No. 2 singles player," Jones said. "We still have a top 5 that are really good and definitely have the potential to place well at tournaments, possibly even qualify for state. The other five have a chance to perform at least close to how we did last year."

"We lost a lot of seniors last year," Rogers said. "This year we have a lot of people who are going to be stepping up. I think the best thing we can probably do is get those newer players adjusted to playing at a varsity level so that next year we'll have a really solid team."

As with most coaches, Schulz and assistant coach Matt Klusener enter the season with a high degree of optimism.

"In evaluating the talent over 34 years, we're just as talented as we've been in the past," Schulz said. "It's just experience that's going to be the telltale. If we can gain that experience quickly, we'll be good."