Three more county teams begin their seasons today as the 2024-25 boys’ tennis season kicks off. The Owls, Braves, and Cougars are all eager to get back to compete.

Seymour hosts Waldron at 5:30 p.m. Trinity Lutheran travels to Milan to face Oldenburg Academy at the same time, while Brownstown hosts Paoli at 5 p.m.

Seymour

It’s a new coaching era for the Owls as P.J. Stein begins his tenure as varsity head coach, hoping to help deliver the third straight sectional title for the program. He spoke about expectations in the opening meet of the season.

“We know Waldron is a quality opponent,” Stein said. “We didn’t get to see them last year, but we know they are very strong, especially their returning singles players. We will have to bring our A game because we know they will give us all we want. I expect a strong effort from our guys.”

The coach expects leadership and experience to be something they can rely on.

“We have four seniors that all lead in different ways,” Stein said. “If one of them or another teammate gets down, I’ve seen them show up every time to lift each other up. They are four fantastic young men, and we couldn’t be luckier to have them leading the charge in 2024.”

The four seniors are Xavier DuBois, Griffin Eggers, Joel Stevens, and Parker Thompson. Yuto Chinda and Shunsuke Takeuchi are the squad’s two juniors. Braylon Busby, Lukas McNeely, Carter Stein and Ammon Wells are the sophomores. Aiden Ault, Gus Henry, Collin Patterson, Max Payne, Cash Stein and Dane Thompson are the freshmen on the 2024 edition.

Stein loves the competitiveness of this year’s group.

“This group just gels,” he said. “They really compete and push each other in practice, but as soon as practice ends, they are all friends. It’s a great combination to see.”

The Owls have 13 sectional titles with six of them coming since 2015. If the Owls can secure the sectional title this season, it would be the team’s third three-peat in school history (1991-93) and (2017-19).

Every time the Owls have won back-to-back sectionals, they were able to secure the three-peat. Some other schools in the area, however, might have something to say about that third Seymour title.

Brownstown Central

The Braves are led by their seniors in Smith Hackman, Lane Steward and Pierson Wheeler. Evan Schneider also is a senior but is injured and is hoping to make a return at some point this season.

Brownstown did not lose a single varsity player from last season but could potentially have a different look according to Head Coach Donnie Thomas.

The coach mentioned the possibility of moving his two (Wheeler) and three (Steward) singles to No. 1 doubles but didn’t say it was a guaranteed thing.

“We had a scrimmage last week, the whole team looked good as a unit,” Thomas said. “We let Lane and Pierson both play together, and they played well, they’re both aggressive players and cover the court well. I don’t think it will be an issue for them.”

Max Peters, Jace Reaser and Caysen Robertson are the juniors. Chase Brock, Jaron Bryant, Brady Davis, Carson Ferguson and Trey Isaacs are the sophomores.

The incoming freshmen are Charlie Blair, Hunter Combs, Ben Klosterman and Bode Mull. Coach Thomas is looking for aggressiveness and mobility in their first match of the season with Paoli.

“I want to see them be aggressive, we tend to stand at times on the court and I want them to move more out there,” Thomas said. “I want them to be ready and aggressive with their play.”

Brownstown finished as sectional runner-up to the Owls last season.

Trinity Lutheran

The Cougars had two players make history last season, as Nathan Finke and Jonathan Neawedde became the first Cougars to advance in the Indiana High School Individual Tennis Tournament.

Finke, along with Will Gausmann and Nathaniel Phinn are the seniors for Trinity. Brody Brown, Jack Stuckwisch, and Neawedde are juniors. Mitch Gausmann and Luke Schepman are the two sophomores, while five freshmen are new to the team this season. Ross Bevers, Daniel Bode, Clayton Rieckers, Reed Roeder, and Dan Tracey.

Cougars Head Coach Brad Emerson spoke about some strengths of the team.

“We’ll be pretty good at one singles with Jack (Stuckwisch), also returning is our one doubles team of Nathan (Finke) and Jonathan (Neawedde),” Emerson said. “I think we should be solid in that position as well.”

Emerson wants leadership from his six upperclassmen.

“They bring leadership and experience to the team,” he said. “They can also lead for the younger kids. We’re still figuring out some things at two and three singles.”

The coach spoke about some expectations for the team in their opening match with Oldenburg.

“You never know how the kids are going to respond, but I expect my veterans to play like veterans,” Emerson said. “I hope we can see some bright spots in our two and three singles and just see how these kids compete. I thought we played pretty well in our scrimmage with Salem last week. I’m hoping for a good season coming up.”

It should be a very competitive season in boys’ tennis all leading to the postseason where all three teams clash in the sectional.