Karen Boehler
CCSR writer/editor
After a solid 2009 season in which both the Coyote boys and girls tennis teams took second in district, qualifying for state, Roswell may have to try a little harder this season.
The boys, who advanced through the first round at state, graduated two of their top three, and the girls, who sent six individuals to state — something coach Kelly McDonald said “if not unprecedented, is certainly rare” — graduated three.
“You never want to say you’re in a rebuilding year, but we’re not expecting to be quite as strong as we were last year,” Kelly said. “I don’t want to say we’re doing the whole youth movement thing, because we do have some seniors, but it’s not the strongest group of seniors.”
The girls will be led by senior Bailey Martinez and junior Mary Romero, but with only about a week of practice under their belts, Kelly isn’t sure which of the rest of his 27 athletes — he certainly has numbers — will go where.
“Really, my lineup is very likely going to change at some point, just because we haven’t had enough practice to kind of flush it out,” he said.
And while the numbers are there, besides losing three seniors, three Coyotes expected to play also didn’t come out, meaning in essence they lost six players.
“The girls are going to struggle a little bit this year at the bottom half of my ladder,” Kelly said.
The boys will be led by Freddie Romero — Mary’s twin brother — followed by seniors Brett Michael, Justin Roach, Marcos Martinez, Carlos Garcia and Geyer Thompson, and won’t have it quite as hard.
“The boys will be solid,” Kelly said. “The only problem with the boys is we graduated two solid players and Goddard didn’t graduate any. Artesia will graduate a few, but it’s not necessarily that we took a step back, it’s just that everybody else is reloading from last year with the same people. So it’ll be tough on us, but I still think I’ll qualify both teams for state.”
Beyond that, Kelly said the same thing every other AAAA tennis coach in southern New Mexico knows: that getting anywhere in state is not easy.
“It’s so tough to get past the Academies and the Los Alamoses and the St. Piuses. Those kids play forever and have had private lessons since they were tiny. That’s what makes it tough,” he said.
And he knows district won’t be easy either, he’s still thinking positive.
“We’d like to really improve in a hurry, and think that we might get past Goddard, but boy, they’re just going to be awfully tough,” Kelly said.
For more sports news, go to Chaves County Sports Report