| By: Bill Brown Coming off of last years tie for the regional 3A title, and a trip to State for five of the seven team members, Hurricane High School’s girls' tennis team looks strong and expects to do well in regional play, said Marc Manuele, head coach for the Tigers. He said he is optimistic about the prospects this year.
“We have four varsity players returning from last year, that will play very well for us,” Manuele said. “Plus we have some promising freshman girls that will probably make varsity.”
Manuele, who has been coaching girl’s tennis at HHS for four years, said this year’s team has a lot of depth. He said there are not a bunch of superstars on the team but that they are consistently strong even through second doubles, traditionally where teams put their weakest players. Even if they do not prove to be as strong as some teams in one or two of the singles games, he said they hope to take the matches by winning in the doubles arena.
Due to the addition of Desert Hills High School into the 3A rotation, the schedule has changed to 12 games this year, Manuele said. This has shortened the team’s preparation time. They have been practicing since the beginning of August, he said. The girls' focus in practice has been on conditioning and developing rock solid fundamentals.
Because of the shortened pre-season, Manuele said they will participate in the “Duel in the Desert” tournament this year, where they hope to get a good look at some of the other teams they will be competing against in the region. He said he thinks Desert Hills will be the team to beat this year, and he hopes to give them and Cedar and Canyon View a run for the regional championship this year.
Tennis is an individual sport as well as a team sport, Manuele said. He wants to emphasize the teamwork and feeling of unity this year, drawing the girls closer together with less focus on individual tennis.
“That is one thing I want to focus on,” Manuele said. “I want to become a team, where the girls are watching and rooting everybody on, whether their match is done or not.”
This year’s team is a young team, Manuele said. They have only two seniors on the team, and all the rest are sophomores, juniors and freshmen. That being the case, he is looking for good things to come in the following years as well.
“I see the girls on a three year program, to get them where I want them to be,” he said. “This year the goal is to qualify all five teams for state.”
Manuele encouraged the community to come out and watch the matches this year. He said that fans will see good, close, fun-to-watch matches. They will learn a lot about how tennis is played.
“They are such a good group of girls,” Manuele said. “They are a pleasure to coach. I enjoy Hurricane and the students who go there. It is refreshing to me to be able to coach them.”
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