Sports
Tiger Tennis teams to begin season at A&M Consolidated
Thursday, 31 January 2013 by Grayson Edds
The Belton Tigers are looking forward to serving up some intense competition during their spring tennis season, which starts this weekend with a tournament at A&M Consolidated.
Coach Kyle Larson is excited to embark on the new season, and is working to create the best lineup for the team.
"We'll have most of the same players," he said. "In the fall and spring, some players are involved in different activities. We're trying to find the right fit for everyone."
Finding the right mesh and lineup of returning seniors and lowerclassmen is the focus this week.
"We try to get seniors playing in the spring; we can't get everybody, but we do try to get most of them," Larson said. "At the same time, we try to get younger players some experience. We try to get a good mesh as a whole for everyone. It's a very difficult process trying to put the team together in the spring."
The schedule for this season looks both promising and challenging, a testament to the hard work that the Tiger Tennis team has put forth in the past.
"I've got us in some really good tournaments this spring," Larson said. "We've got the usual suspects and changed up some."
The A&M tournament this weekend promises to be a good strong tournament, Larson said. Another tournament Larson is looking forward to is at Westlake in February.
"A big (tournament) for us is Westlake; three or four of the top 10 teams in the state are going to be there. It's a very strong tournament. I'm excited for the kids to go."
A tournament with teams of that caliber shows the strength, dedication, and hard work of the Tiger Tennis team.
Spring tennis is structured differently than the fall season, and provides the opportunity for the team to bring some big trophies home. Larson said that about 90 percent of the tournaments they will participate in offer placement trophies to the schools with the most team points.
"Belton as a whole could walk away with placement point-wise," he said. "People think of (tennis) as an individual sport, but we're a team when we go in to play. Hopefully we can take home a big trophy in the end."
Although the team is still working on their lineup, Larson said that there are strong players this season and he expects that the team should be tough from top to bottom.
