The Hays High School boys tennis season has begun, with the team’s first varsity meet taking place in McPherson on Tuesday, March 26, and the first junior varsity meet being in Phillipsburg on Thursday, March 28.

This year, the team has 34 members compared to last season’s 28 members.

Due to construction around the Hays High tennis courts, the team has been holding practices at the Fort Hays State University tennis courts. However, they also must avoid conflicting with the FHSU girls tennis team’s practices. Because of this, coach Kayla Brown schedules practices from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The first few weeks of practice have focused on different drills for forehands, backhands, serving, hitting at the net, cross court and returning lobs.

“This time is also used to teach or refresh the rules of the game and scoring procedures,” Brown said. “The week prior to meets, we spend most of our practice time playing matches. This allows players to play both singles and doubles so we can get players paired up and prepare meet line-ups.”

At the first varsity meet of the season, senior Colin Clark and junior Ken Shafer played singles. Senior Xavier Catura and junior Kale Schwien played as one doubles team with the other doubles team being seniors Kaiden Bunger and Carsen Riat.

“I am really excited for this season,” Brown said. “We have a huge group of upperclassmen that bring a lot of experience and understanding of the sport to the team… It is my hope that this will be one of the most successful seasons had by HHS boys tennis in many years.”

26ddixon@usd489.com