The Bear River Tennis team has set its sights on a great season with players eager to once again play a normal season.

So far, the team has got off to a great start with an overall record of 2-1, especially considering the abundance of new tennis players this season.

Tennis Coach Jeremy Kerr had to make some adjustments to his approach when considering this year’s younger roster.

“Although I couldn’t introduce my positioning system yet because we have so many new players working on the fundamentals, I think we can do well this season considering that we are off to such a great start,” Kerr said.

Lots of players on the team were optimistic about the rest of the season for a myriad of reasons.

Sophomore Sabrina Mantooth, a doubles net player, wanted to be good at playing both roles.

“I want to be better at playing as a base player,” Mantooth said. “I play doubles, so in doubles, there is a person who is usually on the net and a person in the back, and then they basically hit the ball over the net, low and hard preferably.”

Despite having a way to go to reach her goals, Mantooth is confident nonetheless, especially with support from her doubles partner.

“The energy of this team is really good. I have worked really well with my partner, and this is the first time we have worked together,” said Mantooth. “I really like her. She is super nice and funny, and we work really well together since she is an amazing base player and I’m a good net player.”

Junior Shannon Rodriquez has ambitious goals for the season and isn’t fazed by the recent loss to Lindhurst.

“I hope to win and have fun,” Rodriguez said. “I think we are doing pretty good. The latest match didn’t go too great I think mainly due to it being super windy, and Lindhurst was really good at matching up their ladder, but I think we are doing great.”

Senior Ryan Potts spoke of creating a more tight-knit team to help everyone improve.

“I think overall we just want to become a better team, become more connected with each other, and be able to perform as a whole instead of just individually,” Potts envisioned. “Kind of create a tennis family and be ready for next season. We kind of struggled with the pandemic and I think we have bounced back well. We can only keep it up if we work hard and stay practiced to pull ourselves together.”

Potts also held some personal goals to level up his game.

“I would like to improve certain skills like backhands and things that I have struggled with, just to round out myself,” Potts said. 

Some of the more experienced players held slightly conflicting views on what effects the largely underclassmen roster would have on the team.

Rodriguez thought that the lack of experience was daunting, but not game ending.

“I think it could have some downsides because, like in the Lindhurst match, everyone on their team had great serves and knew what they were doing. However, I think we are going to be okay,” said Rodriguez.

Potts believed that new blood held potent potential for future teams.

“I think it has benefitted us, as it has allowed us to start building up a base with a lot of new players,” said Potts. “If we can grow from that, it will help out next year and the year after. It’s been really fun and we are so excited.”