Pulaski County Boys Tennis Team Rebuilding

The Pulaski County High School boys tennis team will look to rebuild this year, despite the fact the group is led by four seniors in its top six.

The team only returns three players from last season's team; seniors Nathan Miller and Justin Smith as well as junior Ryan Blose. Miller was the team's No. 6 player, but now assumes the No. 1 role, while Smith and Blose are second and third respectively.

"Any of my top three will face one and two in the district," said fourth-year coach Jerry Danner. "They are going to have some tough matches on their hands. They are good and have developed their ball striking, which should get them some points."

New additions to the team include seniors Roland Tucker and Travis Cox, who will play in the fourth and fifth spot. Sophomore Trevor Hess completes the lineup in the sixth spot.

From what he has seen so far, Danner expects one of these new additions to step up and play extremely well:

"I think Travis Cox, my No. 4 player, is showing a consistent game," Danner said. "His points are very long and he is able to stay in rallies."

The Cougars are already off to a good start, winning two of their first three matches of the season. Danner feels that his team's non-district schedule will help play a big part in their success early on.

"Usually in our out-of-district matches with Giles, Galax, and Radford, we have matched up well," Danner said. "We hope to do the same again this year. We are basically lacking a bit of experience and aren't as deep as we have been in the past few years."

The difficulty in the schedule starts with the district schedule, where the Cougars will face both Hidden Valley and Salem. Hidden Valley was the state runner-up in AA boy's tennis to Salem, who swept both the singles and doubles titles last season.

"Our district is probably the toughest in the state," Danner said. "Over the last eight years, one of the three top teams in it has been to the state championship matches. With this kind of being a rebuilding year for us, I expect the team to get better by the end of the year. By the last match, they will have improved a lot."

Just like the girl's team, the boys tennis team reaped the benefits of the $1,500 dollar donation made to the tennis program, which is helping the team with new uniforms and equipment.

"That was awesome," Danner said. "I knew the guy that donated the money and his son played here. That was some pretty good support to have."

However, the biggest need for the team could not be taken care of with the donated money. Many of the courts that are used at PCHS by both the boys and girls teams are in poor condition with a few cracks in them. Danner is hopeful that they will be fixed in the near future.

"I know it is from the years of use from the public, high school, and P.E. classes, but the courts have really deteriorated," Danner said. "We have a crack that starts at court one and ends in court four. After this hard winter, I've noticed two cracks on this court too that I haven't seen before. They are really needing to be resurfaced."

By CODY DALTON
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