Plymouth tennis ready to compete
PLYMOUTH – One thing that you can count on each fall is Plymouth’s tennis squad being in the mix as an NLC challenger.
The conference is normally solid from top to bottom, if not outstanding and this year is no different. Plymouth head coach Brad Haeck is looking at a lineup he likes, but one that lacks a bit of varsity experience.
“It’s very rare when you don’t lose somebody from your top seven,” said Haeck. “We lost several of our singles players. Carter Snyder was our number one singles, Jake Stone was our number three and we lost a really good one doubles team in Easton Strain and Matt Manzuk. We lost a two-doubles player, Cam Shively.”
“We lost a lot of experience and some varsity lettermen for three years a couple of them were four-year lettermen,” said Haeck. “We lost a lot in that regard.”
Haeck still has room for optimism.
“We had a really strong JV last year with kids who had some success at the JV level,” he said. “We are going to look for some of the remaining varsity kids to step up into higher positions and some of those JV kids to step in and fill a varsity void that we have.”
Experience or not, the Pilgrims will be tested early and often with the non-conference part of the schedule no easier than the NLC lineup.
“I just looked at the state poll from last year and we play five teams that were ranked in the final top 30 in the regular season schedule,” said Haeck. “We haven’t made it easy on ourselves but the goal in that process even if you are losing to teams that have kids that play more in the off-season or have more talent, how do we compete against that? Are we showing up every day? Are we committed to getting better every day? Are we focusing on the positives and getting better and improving.”
“You want to play the best. That only makes you better,” said Haeck. “But if you keep losing and losing your confidence can go down. We want to make sure we keep their confidence up. In the long run, playing that kind of competition can only make you better.”
While Haeck has a solid cast of characters, what role those characters will play is still in the works as practice gets into full swing.
“It’s always a little tricky to know where everybody is going to fall in that ladder when we do the challenge matches,” said Haeck. “I’ve seen some of them more than others over the summer. Some of them are still active in other sports and they aren’t lacking in the conditioning aspect but maybe they haven’t gotten as many reps as some other guys. It’s a little bit of a guessing game until you see them out competing against each other.”
“Martin Baca was at two singles for us last year and he’s likely going to be playing singles for us at one of the spots,” said Haeck. “James Kruyer was our one singles player on JV last year and he’s put a lot of time in improving himself and making his game better, so I’m pretty sure he will be a singles player for us as well.”
“Caleb Bowling was a two-doubles player for us last year and he potentially will move up to a one-doubles spot,” he said. “Ryan Gadziola was a high-level JV player for us last year and he’s pretty secure in a top-seven position this year. I look for all four of our seniors to all be in our top seven in some capacity helping us at the varsity level.”
“Trey Delp is our other player with varsity experience,” said Haeck. “He started out as a high JV doubles player and when Cam Shively went down with an injury he filled in at that two doubles spot and really improved over the year so I look for him to be in one of those varsity positions.”
“We have some juniors in the mix,” he said. “Trenton VanDuyne has played some other sports and was at a high-level JV spot last year so he will likely be in that top seven as well. We’ve got a lot of other juniors that have played at a high level on JV but they really don’t have varsity experience but they will be right there too.
We will have to wait until we start playing our challenge matches to see how that’s all going to play out.”
It leads to confidence in the Pilgrim’s chances for the coming season.
“I think every year you have tangible goals that you want to reach,” said Haeck. “You’re trying to do well in your conference, you’re trying to do well in the postseason and those are goals we always have. There is an individual aspect as well. The guys have a goal of doing well at their spot to have a chance at all conference and things like that.”
We want to compete,” he said. “This year is no different and this year I think we have the guys to at least compete at that level.”
“We just want to be competitive with the conference schools whatever that looks like. We just want to improve. It sounds cliche but we want to improve every day.”
