The past couple of seasons the Emmett High tennis program has been young, inexperienced, and at times short of numbers to fill both varsity and junior varsity rosters. This spring the numbers question appears to have been answered with 28 athletes out.
The youth and inexperience remains a theme, but one that first-year coach Jon Barrus sees with great potential to mature as the season progresses.
“About half of these kids are picking up a tennis racket for the first time,” Barrus said. “But there are some athletes amongst them and we have some young veterans who can lead the way. We have a lot of freshman and sophomores in the mix and if the kids buy into the program I think the future is bright.”
Barrus, a former EHS tennis player himself, has been assisting the program for the past several years while establishing his medical practice in town. When Dean LeBreton retired last spring after twelve seasons at the helm of the program, Barrus was a natural to step in — but he admits it’s not without a few hurdles.
“Sometimes a baby delivery gets in the way,” he laughs. But his players don’t seem to confuse Coach Barrus with Doctor Barrus. Partly because he has been there for the tennis careers of the upper classmen.
Last season two doubles teams nearly broke through the Bishop Kelly stronghold on the conference but came up a match short of reaching State. Those athletes are back but may not be playing doubles this year.
Barrus is utilizing an internal ladder competition for both boys and girls and as they establish their own pecking order, the players will have some heavy input as to whether they play singles or doubles.
“We have challenge matches to determine the top nine on each ladder,” Barrus said. “That allows each player to find where they are more comfortable. It might mean we will have a lot of shifting in the early weeks but hopefully we will find our comfort zone as a team in the second half of the season.
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One pair that may or may not be returning as a combo come District tournament time are senior Elena Henry and sophomore Kylie Barrus. They teamed up girls doubles last year and came up just shy of State, and opened the season last week in the number-one spot against Ridgevue but they are open to test other waters if they want.
The Huskies fell 11-1 to the Warhawks in the SIC opening dual match. Griffen Arnett earned the Huskies lone match victory, taking a straight set 6-3, 7-6 decision with the help of a four point tie breaker in the second.
New to the Emmett program this season is junior Ryan Lewis who moved to Emmett from the Las Vegas area this past year. Lewis ended up in the number-one boys singles position against Ridgevue and lost a hard fought 7-6, 6-4 debut match.
Others putting up strong opening day showings were the number-one boys doubles team of Ryan Raynor and Brayden Stephens who forced three sets and the second girls doubles team of Deni Allen and Hailey Oxnam losing a second set tie breaker in six.
Bishop Kelly has dominated 4A tennis for quite awhile, particularly in the Southern Idaho Conference. Often the Knights will take multiple athletes to State in each of the singles and doubles events. Barrus acknowledges that the BK program is probably more year-round than the rest of the SIC and certainly has more indoor opportunities than the Huskies enjoy.
So setting BK aside, he sees the rest of the conference on somewhat even footing — particularly Caldwell, Vallivue, Ridgevue and Columbia. Newcomer Skyview remains an unknown as the season gets underway.
As usual, battling through early weather issues is the team’s first challenge.
“It’s normally pretty cold to start the season but I don’t remember too many 30 degree practices in past years,” Barrus said. “Once things warm up a bit hopefully we can find our comfort zones and be able to perform to the best of our abilities.”