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Veteran Alpena boys tennis team excited for another season

By Owen Kinzey 3 min read
News File Photo In addition to a great season on the court, the Alpena High boys tennis was outstanding in the classroom. The team was named Academic All-State by the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association. William Bushey and Connor Caplis were also honored with All-State Academic Achievement Senior Player Tennis Awards. On the court, the doubles team of Landon Gagnon and Nathan Pokorzynski won Big North Conference and regional championships and Reid Meinhardt qualified for and competed at the state finals. The team includes Johnny Bender, William Schultz, Evan Goff, Thaddius Tadain, River Servia, Tyler Cloft, Josh Nystrom, Ishan Sandhu, William Bushey, Avery Mcconnell, Braeden Heath, Nathan Pokorzynski, Zach Cloft, Keller Weischowski, Reid Meinhardt, Nick Lusardi, Finn Williams, Connor Caplis, Alec Degan, Garret Flanner, Hunter Orr, and Landon Gagnon.

ALPENA -- With all members of the Alpena High boys tennis team returning this fall, the Wildcats are only looking for improvement from last season.

The team has put in a lot of effort over the summer and are excited to get back on the courts this fall.

Experience is going to play a key part in this year's season now that the team has all 16 players returning for another year. This gives Alpena coach Charlie Giordano a tremendous opportunity to teach more advanced skills rather than just the basics.

Although the roster is filled with upperclassmen, there is one underclassmen Giordano is expecting an outstanding year from in sophomore Reid Meinhardt.

Meinhardt showed what he was capable of last year as a freshman and is someone the team hopes can take his game to the next level.

"Reid Meinhardt is one player I'm really excited for this year and he has spent a lot of time in the offseason working on his game," Giordano said.

Giordano is also very happy with both of his top doubles teams and how they've performed up to this point

"My one doubles team is very solid; that team consists of Finn Williams and Johnny Bender. My two doubles are also really strong with Tyler Cloft and Will Bushey; they have done an amazing job playing together already," Giordano said.

Giordano is also high on some of Alpena's other flights, which have experienced players returning.

Alpena's singles lineup includes seniors Connor Caplis, River Servia, and Garrett Flanner. The rest of Alpena's doubles lineup includes freshman Nathan Pokorzynski and sophomore Landon Gagnon at four singles and a junior-senior combo at three singles Giordano said might catch some opponents by surprise.

"I think my three doubles team (senior Nick Lusardi and junior Josh Nystrom) might surprise some people. Once they become comfortable as partners they might have a few more wins than they might think they have in them."

The team has already played in a few matches and have played much better than expected to start the season, according to Giordano.

"We've played great, three different events came in fifth and almost got fourth which was good. We beat Harbor Springs for the first time in the last eight or nine years. We went to Cadillac and Glen Lake where there is a lot of good tennis. We took flights from there and so far it's been good," Giordano said.

The Big North Conference is very hard to compete in, but Alpena hopes to be as competitive as it can be amongst its toughest opponents.

"Our conference is very tough and we have not yet played Traverse City West, Traverse City Central, or Petoskey. So we hope to take as many flights as possible from them, but our regional we should do well in," Giordano said.

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