With no indoor facility to practice in, the Cook County high school boys’ tennis team is practicing outside in the wind and cold, dodging occasional snowflakes as they chase tennis balls down. Here Jamie Wick serves while Pete Summers looks on. The boys’ first match will be held at Duluth East on April 13, and while snow is predicted for this weekend, the long-range forecast suggests the Northland will be slowly warming up.
If tennis is a game of love, last week’s weather served up some tough love.
While the boys’ baseball team and girls’ fast pitch softball teams practiced in the warm confines of the Cook County high school and elementary school gymnasiums, the boys’ tennis team practiced outside in the cold.
And boy was it cold!
With temps hovering in the mid- 30s and an icy wind blowing in from Canada, the boys shivered even while they volleyed.
Head Coach John Muus said his squad would be led by returning lettermen Justin Goldstein (senior), Lars Scannell (sophomore), Jamie Wick (sophomore), and Pete Summers (freshman).
“Scannell is our top returning singles player. He placed third in the Sections last year and nearly qualified for state. He should make it to state this year,” Muus said.
New to the team is a bevy of seventh graders, Andy Kern, Caleb Philips, Isak Terrill, and Jacob Bilben; Lucas Philips, a sophomore, plays baseball but has said that he might also play tennis, said Muus, adding, “And Kayne Dahl and Liam Abelon also have indicated that they might come out.”
The boys’ first game will be played April 13 at Duluth East. Muus said he would play his four varsity players in singles and play his younger players in doubles.
“We’ll be pretty green in doubles. It will be hard to win matches, but if our singles players do well, you never know,” Muus said.
Of the seven scheduled games, only one will be played in Grand Marais. On May 3 the Duluth Denfeld Hunters will face the Vikings on their home court. The first match will start at 4:15 p.m.
The Cook County Tennis Association funds the boys and girls tennis team. This is the third year of the high school program, said Muus, who has run a junior summer tennis program since 1994.
“Next year will be a make or break for us. If we have some of the sixthgrade kids come out we will be able to continue on. If they lose interest, I don’t know if we will be able to continue to field a varsity team.”
But for this season the boys will play, and individually should do well. Missed of course, will be last year’s captain, David Bergstrom, a two-time state individual qualifier who is playing Division 1 tennis for North Dakota University this year. When Muus was reminded that not many new, small school clubfunded programs put out D-1 athletes, he smiled, then he turned and started his shivering kids on a new drill as the wind picked up.
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