By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
ALLEGAN
New season. Same goals.
“Our goals are usually the same year in and year out, including this year,” Allegan coach Damien Arthur said. “We want to win our conference and our regional and finish top 10 at the State Finals.”
With six sophomores and a freshman in the starting lineup, Arthur added a goal for this year.
“I also want this young team to show a lot of growth throughout the year, as there will be some growing pains,” he said.
The youthful makeup of the team is due to the fact that six members of last year’s squad are gone due to graduation.
“We have a very young but exciting team this season,” Arthur said. “With us graduating half our team from 2023, that has created a lot of opportunities for our younger players. Our JV guys from last year and our incoming freshman have put in a lot of work in the offseason, and it really showed at tryouts this year.”
The six returning members of the team include senior Gavin Clark, who is moving up to No. 1 singles after playing No. 2 singles last season. Fellow senior Nate Kuebler is slated to play No. 1 doubles alongside returning sophomore Ezra Smith, while seniors Adam Mozery and Joe Sosnowski are penciled in at No. 2 doubles.
Returning junior Silas Neldon is moving up one spot flight from No. 3 to No. 2 singles.
Sophomores Morghan Misner-Medemar (No. 3) and Wesley Goodspeed (No. 4) round out the singles lineup.
At doubles, sophomore Noah Kuelber and freshman Carson Woodhams will play at No. 3, with sophomores Oliver Burnett and John DeLaet at No. 4.
“Some things that stick out to me so far as a strength for this team is our scrappiness,” Arthur said. “I think we’ll see a lot of tiebreakers and third sets with this team throughout the year because we have the mentality to make our opponent hit one more shot.
“We are going to have to be patient with ourselves, as coaches and as players. We have a lot of youth and are going to have growing pains early on. But if we can handle the challenge mentally, then we will be where we are supposed to be in October.”
When it comes to the SAC/Lakeland Conference, Arthur knows defending their league title will be no easy task for the Tigers.
“This fall will be an absolute bloodbath in the conference,” he said. “Berrien Springs, (Kalamazoo) Christian, Hackett, and us will all be in contention to push for a championship.
“I think this is the deepest year for talent in the conference, and it’s exciting to see how it plays out. We should be in the top four, but we have our eyes on repeating as conference champions.”
HAMILTON
Following a highly successful 2023 season that saw Hamilton place second in league play and qualify for the Division 3 State Finals, the Hawkeyes enter the 2024 campaign facing some roster turnover.
Half of the players from last year’s team graduated, meaning there will be six new faces in the lineup.
“We have lots of new players,” said coach Steve Lubbers, who was named D3 Coach of the Year last season. “They have worked on their game during the offseason and we hope to show great improvement by the end of the year.
“We lost a lot of experienced players from last year’s team and have a lot of guys in new positions, but they are great guys and work hard each day.”
Back for Hamilton are seniors Seth Lappinga (No. 1 singles), Aiden Hamlin (No. 3 singles) and Reece Carlson (No. 4 singles); juniors Dylan Loew (No. 2 singles) and James Anderson (doubles); and sophomore Grayden Lubbers (doubles).
“Our singles players are pretty evenly matched from top to bottom,” Steve Lubbers said. “Doubles teams will be completely new this year, so I’m excited to see how they progress.”
Hamilton will compete in a new conference this year, having been moved to the OK Black as part of OK realignment.
“The new OK Black league looks like it has lots of parity in it,” Steve Lubbers said. “Holland Christian again is probably the team to beat.
“I’m just looking forward to another fun year with the guys and trying to develop and the boys into fine young men.”
OTSEGO
There will be no shortage of experience for Otsego in the singles flights.
Senior Spencer Shearer, junior Phoenix Orona, junior Maddox Haak and senior Ryan Fieldbrandt all return with previous varsity experience. They are scheduled to play No. 1 through No. 4 singles, respectively.
Also returning are last year’s No. 3 doubles team of senior Jaydon Watson and sophomore Owen Santman along with last year’s No. 4 doubles team of juniors Jacob Austin and Simon Pobocik.
The remainder of the lineup will be comprised of newcomers to the varsity squad, many of them who played at the JV level last season.
“Over the last couple years, our program has grown drastically in numbers at the JV level,” Otsego coach AJ Swoboda said. “This has made it very difficult for us to make decisions on varsity versus JV. It is a great problem to have, but also makes you wish there were more varsity spots.”
Last year, the Bulldogs went 7-7-1.
“I think we will be very competitive this year in conference with many JV guys looking to step into those four open spots,” Swoboda said. “I am looking for us to pick up a bit and win a few more matches this year.”
PLAINWELL
Plainwell coach Jeff Lindstrom likes the direction his team is trending.
“Our tennis program is continuing to grow,” he said. “We have awesome parent involvement, a great group of young men who are both athletes and students and positive continued growth. We are excited to continue improving.”
Senior Kevin Vicenzi is slated to play No. 1 singles. He leads a group of returning letter winners that also includes: juniors Andrew Hampton and Teagen Wilson at No. 1 doubles; seniors Austin Susens and Lincoln Benson at No. 2 doubles; seniors Anthony Kolhoff and Brayden Triemstra at No. 3 doubles; and juniors Sean MacRitchie and Alex Steele at No. 4 doubles.
Senior exchange student Merlin Kistler is slotted in at No. 2 singles, with junior Trevor Velting at No. 3 singles and freshman Bryce Stoeffler at No. 4 singles.
“We have a deeper team this year in terms of lots of boys who have had experience playing in previous years at high school or middle school,” Lindstrom said. “Our goal would be to move up to fifth or sixth in conference after last year finishing seventh.”
WAYLAND
If experience translates into success, then this should be a very successful season for Wayland.
A total of 10 players return for coach Ben Adams.
Back are: seniors Theo Oddy (No. 1 singles), Cam Sieffert (No. 2 singles) and Malcolm Sheffer (No. 4 doubles); juniors Jake VanDuine (No. 3 singles), Mason Babiak (No. 4 singles), Chesney Hudson (No. 1 doubles), Asher Hendricks (No. 3 doubles) and Issiah Gates (doubles); and sophomores Brayden Tomson (No. 1 doubles) and Grant Dunkle (No. 2 doubles).
Freshman Dawson Babiak, Spencer Miller and Brycen Rookus are also vying for spots on varsity.
“We’ll continue to build on the strength of our young, incoming players,” Adams said. “This team brings a fierce drive to succeed to the courts and looks forward to each match on the schedule.”
Wayland will play in the newly realigned OK Gold, which has brought in four new teams.
“Our team looks forward to competing against some new teams, as well as our OK Gold Conference rivals,” Adams said. “We have consistently finished in the middle of the OK Gold Conference and we should be contenders in the conference this season as well.
“TK, South Christian, West Catholic will be tough matches. I don’t believe we’ve played Northview, West Catholic or Lowell before, so they’ll be new to the schedule.
Adams is also excited to welcome Tyler Hough to the program as an assistant coach.
“Tyler was a 4-year varsity player for Three Rivers High School and a WMU Club Tennis player,” Adams said. “He brings excellent tennis knowledge and past coaching experience to our developing players and is an excellent fit to the Wayland tennis program.”
