Seniors on the Trinity Lutheran tennis team are, from left, Drew Kerkhof and Solomon Hall.
Trinity Lutheran prepares to begin its 2023 season today when the Cougars travel to Jennings County to face the Panthers.
Eleven kids represent the Cougars this season for coach Brad Emerson.
Solomon Hall and Drew Kerkhof are the seniors on the roster.
The juniors include Will Gausman, Nathan Finke and Nathaniel Phin.
Sophomores on the team are Jack Stuckwisch, Evan Abbott, Brody Brown and Jonathan Neawedde.
The freshmen on the roster are Luke Schepman and Mitch Gausman.
Emerson is pleased with the progress the team has made in the first few weeks of practice.
“The kids have been working really hard,” Emerson said. “We’ve had some rainy days that have interrupted what we wanted to accomplish on that certain day. We’re teaching the kids new things and showing them tennis instruction and how to hit the ball the right way.”
Emerson spoke about some of the returning athletes on the team, Hall, Stuckwisch, Finke and Neawedde.
“Those are the four main contributors,” he said. “Will Gausman has also played for us. We have a couple of new kids, including senior Drew Kerkhof, who we got to come out to play for the first time.”
Trinity was scheduled to play New Washington, but they didn’t have enough to fill a roster. That is why the Cougars are playing Jennings County.
Emerson was asked what he thinks the team has to accomplish to have a successful season.
“We’re going to need to put our players in the best position to score and win matches,” he said. “We might have to move players around a bit. We are going to be working heavily on our doubles play during the week. We might need to do a few challenge matches in our singles to decide our starting lineup. Everything will fall into place as we begin the season.”