Sherwood Tennis

What does that mean?  It means that all tennis in Oregon in 2024 will be more competitive, and that's awesome.  It will be nice to see more parity around the state.

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For our league, we'll definitely see the impacts as well with the top 3 teams graduating lots more seniors than the 4 who were harder hit by the Covid era.  Just looking at graduations, in order of 2023 league finish):

• Sherwood:  3 graduates, including Morgan (2x league singles champion and Emma (2x state qualifier)

• McMinnville:  5 graduates from their district line-up, including a state qualifier

• Glencoe:  9 graduates, including a state-qualifying doubles team

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• Century:  4 graduates, but their tough 1/2/3 singles line-up is still intact

• Forest Grove:  3 graduates

• Newberg:  3 graduates, but they had 8 varsity players who were only freshmen or sophomores

• Liberty:  1 graduate, and 6 varsity players who were only freshmen or sophomores

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So, what does the season look like for Sherwood?  Our two scheduled non-league matches are Centennial and West Linn.  Both of those teams are in rebuilding mode, but West Linn always rebuilds well and our 5-3 win over them last year included two 1-6, 1-6 losses.  We are excited to go to the Roseburg tournament again (April 19 & 20) and expect great competition there again.  In our conference, most teams will be tougher, but I think most of the younger teams are building up to challenge us more in 2025 than this year.  So, as usual, it will probably be a battle with McMinnville for the league title.  They had a few more graduates than us, but you can always expect them to be tough.  They work hard, have a solid returning core line-up, usually a high-level freshman or two and some players who improve more than most.

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So, it may be possible to improve on last year's 16-2 record, but it's going to take hard work in practice to prepare for the tough teams.

 

As for us, I don't like to make too many predictions about individual players or our lineup.  We do know that competition for the varsity spots will be tough again.   We have a good mix of:

• Returning varsity players

• 2023 JV players who stepped up a few times or a ton of times (with a 26-3 combined record in varsity matches)

• Freshmen who have been putting in lots of work for the last few years

• And most of the last few years have included a surprise or two (maybe a push up from the 2023 JV2 squad, a transfer)

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For our JV and JV2 teams, we expect strong performances as well.  Our JV will be put to more of a test this year with other programs improving.  For our JV2 team, we are hoping to see lots of new faces ready to learn the game and love it.

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And one more very hopeful statement - but no promises.  That thing called El Nino that you probably heard about in your middle school science class is in effect.  Traditionally, El Nino years tend to have drier weather in March and April in Oregon.  So, the brutally wet weather we've had the last two seasons may take a break this year.  Fingers crossed!