The Bear River Tennis Team has swung into action.
February 6 marked the beginning of the 2017 tennis season. Despite weather related delays, the team has been hard at work preparing for the upcoming matches.
Head Coach Jeff Carrow gave his thoughts on this years team.
“This might be a rebuilding year since we have so many young players out there on the courts,” Carrow explained. “We might need another year under our belts to get back up to the level we were at in the previous years.”
Romeo Connors, a senior, didn’t see a clear future for the team.
“I’m not too sure how the season will go, I think we will be pretty mediocre,” he said.
Although the future is uncertain for the team, there are a few new faces on the court that have caught the eyes of their peers.
Breeze Davis, a senior who has been playing tennis for four years, has seen some potential at practice.
“Josephine, the foreign exchange student, is crazy good, she is probably going to be the PVL champion.”
Also a senior, Max McDaniels shared his humble opinion for this season.
“I think I have a little bit of potential, not too much, but just enough,” he said.
Connors did his part in helping the team acquire some new players this year.
“Steven Rich shows a lot of potential, we played soccer together this last season and I told him to come out and join the team,” he said. “He has won all of his challenge matches so far and is third down on the ladder.”
Connors himself is a new addition to the team.
“I played tennis all three years at Nevada Union before I transferred to Bear River late last year,” he said.
Coach Carrow is universally liked by the team. All of the players appreciate his methods and his extreme positive attitude towards the team.
Carrow told about his fun, yet effective approach to the sport.
“Practices are great, everyone out there has a smile on their face,” he said. “We are just gonna scratch and claw for everything we can get and we’re gonna go out and practice and try our hardest. Hopefully our hard work will reward us in the end.”
McDaniel saw two opposite sides to Coach Carrow.
“Yeah, I like Carrow as our coach. But, Carrow in the classroom versus Carrow on the court is a different Carrow. He’s saucy.”
Conners has a lot of respect for Carrow and is quite a fan of his as well.
“He’s definitely really encouraging, that’s Carrow. He tries his best to help out and to be instructive with us all.”
Bear River has high expectations for this year’s tennis team after the success of last season, though they have many obstacles in their way.
“Last year we were section semi-finalists,” Coach Carrow said. “We were the third best team in the section. Our league is extremely challenging, it is considered the best league in our co-ed level of tennis.”
Davis thinks that this year will be a challenge for the team.
“Last years tennis season was the best season Bear River has ever had. In comparison to last year, it’s going to be hard to top,” he said. “I think we will still have a lot of fun though.”
Placer’s tennis team is one of the biggest challenges almost every team in the league has to face.
Coach Carrow explained what happens with the Placer team.
“What happens with Placer is all the other teams in the league end up taking two losses to Placer along with us, so it all evens out,” he said.
Connors quickly responded when asked who the toughest competitor is seen as.
“Usually Placer is our largest competitor,” he said.
The team hope to do their best with what they have been given this season, they start the league against Colfax on Tuesday the 14th of March.
