A pair of squads took the court for Chanute on Tuesday as the Blue Comets welcomed Fort Scott, Iola, Independence, and Ottawa for a boys tennis tournament at the Chanute Community Sports Complex. The Chanute Blue team finished runner- up, while the Chanute Gold squad came in fourth.
Chanute’s home tournament, just the second meet of the year for the Blue Comets, came after a less-than-ideal stretch of practice days — or lack thereof. Despite this, head coach Jeff Smith was pleased with his team’s performance at the home opener.
“I thought we competed at a high level considering all the rain,” he said. “We had limited time on the court last week.”
Regardless of the lack of practice, the Chanute roster carries plenty of varsity experience. Chanute graduated Blaine Smoot, Anthony Wendt, and state qualifier Noah Vogel, though they return the other half of last year’s varsity roster in senior Luke Becknell and the doubles duo of senior Ethan Burnett and junior Ayden Cummings.
Burnett and Cummings finished ninth in the state tournament a year ago, finishing with a combined record of 22-8. The pair has seemingly picked up right where they left off in that tournament, having gone 4-0 Tuesday and 3-0 in the season opener in Pittsburg on April 1.
Becknell posted a record of 17-15 last season alongside the now-graduated Wendt, and now plays alongside sophomore Logan Bilby. Bilby is no slouch of a partner, however, as he went 4-2 in varsity doubles action as a freshman and has seemingly made a significant jump in skill during the offseason.
“Logan had a really good tournament, especially being bumped up to No. 1 Doubles,” Smith said. “He really worked on his game in the summertime which is key to being a good tennis player.”
This partnership is clearly working, as communication between the newly-minted duo was flawless as they finished third in No. 1 doubles, moving their season record to 5-2.
Juniors Caleb Cope and Harrison Vaughan made their season debut on varsity Tuesday, finishing third in No. 2 Doubles and extending their career varsity records to 6-5 and 4-2, respectively. The duo is now 5-1 together, having played a trio of junior varsity matches together last year.
Junior Eli Atherton and freshman Thor Bogle even got in on the doubles fun, each making their varsity debut with a fifth place finish in No. 2 Doubles.
“We also had some junior varsity guys playing like Eli and Thor who were able to get a win versus varsity competition. I always love to see that,” Smith said.
Senior Jacob Pierce now has a career varsity record of 5-4 after finishing second in No. 2 Singles. Pierce went 9-2 in singles matches on junior varsity last year.
While Chanute’s doubles teams are littered with prior varsity experience, the same cannot be said of the singles players. Chanute lost both varsity starters on the singles side, so there will be some rebuilding needed as the season progresses.
A trio of players made their varsity debuts on Tuesday, including junior Kemper Manly (4th) and senior Arthur Scmitt (5th) in No. 1 Singles, and freshman Nathan Guernsey (3rd) in No. 2 Singles. Manly went 6-4 in doubles action and 6-3 in singles matches at the junior varsity level last year, while Schmitt was not on the squad.
“Currently we are pretty strong in doubles,” Smith said. “Our singles play is just not where it needs to be right now, so my job is to figure out how we can get these guys playing better come postseason.”
Every single Blue Comet would likely list different achievements they would like to accomplish individually this season, but the team goals are unanimous; finish on the podium in Southeast Kansas League play and take six players to the state tournament in May.
“It’s going to be really tough, so we are going to have to really focus on getting better these next few weeks,” Smith said. “I think those goals drive them the most, but I think the seniors have some extra motivation with this being their last shot at it.”
Up next
Chanute stays in Southeast Kansas for its next appearance, heading to Pittsburg on Tuesday. The squad then packs up for Winfield for a 32-team tournament April 17.
“We are really looking forward to it. Some of the top 3A-5A teams will be there so it will be a great challenge for us,” Smith said.
