More experienced Alpena boys tennis team has lots of potential in 2021
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ALPENA -- What a difference a year can make.
Last season, Alpena High boys tennis coach Charlie Giordano found himself with a roster of just 11 and nine underclassmen.
This season is a different story. Giordano has 16 players -- exactly half underclassmen and half upperclassmen -- and returns most of his team from last year.
Having more experience than a season ago doesn't hurt either.
"It was great because we have kids that played a bunch in the summer and more kids are playing year-round," Giordano said. "Coming in on the first day, it was just a matter of deciding who wants to play singles, who wants to play doubles and pairing up some doubles teams."
With just one match in the books to start the season, Giordano is still tinkering with his lineup, but he'll have more than enough players to fill all four flights for any given match.
Returning players this season include: juniors Evan Goff, Logan DenBleyker, William Schultz, Nick Lusardi, Avery McConnell, Wil Bushey and Connor Caplis, and sophomore Alec Degan.
The rest of the team includes sophomores Finn Williams, John Bender, Tyler Cloft, Thaddeus Tadian, juniors River Servia, and Ishan Sandu and freshmen Reid Meinhardt and Landon Gagnon.
Giordano said he's been impressed with the camaraderie and leadership from his team so far this season.
"It's nice to have 16 kids to choose from, but also nice to have kids that have enough skill that you can put them in a singles lineup or put them in a doubles lineup and not feel like they're going to get hurt," Giordano said.
Without the concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic last season, Giordano can focus his coaching efforts more on specific aspects of the game, Several practices last season saw the Wildcats have to cram between matches because of the uncertainty of the schedule.
"Now we're in the process of, now I'm teaching kids different types of serves and they're coming in with some basic skills," Giordano said. "It's nice to be able to look two weeks down the road and say, 'Ok, we have a match this Saturday, we've got to get focused on this, then when we get back, we're going to focus on this stuff because then we have another match."