Sports
Tennis team honors players at banquet
Tuesday, 15 May 2012 by Chuck Kelly
Belton High School's Tiger tennis team had a good year --- The boys were District 12-5A runnersup and the girls finished in third place; a trio of players, Jacob Daugherty in singles and Daniel Barron and Ryan Jones in doubles, advanced to regionals; and second-year head coach Kyle Larson was named District 12-5A Coach of the Year.
The team celebrated last Friday at the Harris Community Center with the annual awards banquet.
Tennis is a Fall-Spring sport and the awards were handed out accordingly.
Senior Daniel Barron and sophomore Jacob Daugherty shared the Fall 2011 Most Valuable Player-Boy honor and the Most Vaulable Player-Girl award went to freshman Mayra Perez.
The Most Improved Player-Boy award was earned by freshman Riley Wesson and senior Kaila Martin, who has already committed to Howard Payne University, was named Most Improved Player-Girl.
The Most Valuable Fall Boys Doubles Team was awarded to Daugherty and his sophomore partner Bobby Brooks and the team of Barron and Jones. The Most Valuable Fall Girls Doubles Team honor went to the senior tandem of Jessica Grogan and Krista Harvey.
The Fall 2011 Coaches Award was shared by sophomore Casey Casilhas and junior Jessie Hagen.
In the Spring 2012 Awards, Barron and Jones were honored for being Regional Doubles Qualifiers and Daugherty was lauded for advancing as Boys Singles Regional Qualifier.
Other Spring 2012 awards included:
3rd Place Mixed Doubles-senior Jordi Alfeche and Mayra Perez; 3rd Place Girls Doubles- Grogan and Harvey; Most Improved Boy-sophomore Joey Kincaid; Most Improved Girl-junior Mindy Thompson; Most Improved Doubles Team-Alfeche and Perez; and the Spring 2012 Coaches Award was shared by Leslie Coleman and junior Zayn Evans.
Daniel Barron and team manager Ethan Liu earned Academic All-State honors.
Several additional awards were voted on by the team players:
The Best Sportsmanship award was shared by senior Samantha Alvarez, freshman Caleb Cable and Mayra Perez.
Barron and junior Haley Phillips took the Best Work Ethic award.
Jones and Grogan were voted Most Conscientious.
The Tiger Heart award went to Alfeche and Casilhas.
It was an impressive year for Tiger tennis. The team "fought hard and left it all out on the court" is the way coach Larson put it. "They have jelled as a team, endured a lot and grown so much as individuals."
Tiger Tennis loses seven players to graduation who contributed much to the program --- Jordi Alfeche, Samantha Alvarez, Daniel Barron, Phillip Cesani, Jessica Grogan, Krista Harvey and Kaila Martin --- "great kids", as Larson referred to them.
The juniors this year will return as seniors and step into big shoes to fill and some pretty good young talent will arrive from middle schools, so the coach is very optimistic about next season.
"This was a good year and I think that this 'team' thing is growing on them," Larson commented. "They are excited and I'm excited....that's important."
