Marble Falls team tennis looks to continue success

The Marble Falls High School team tennis team is traveling to play Burnet at the home of the Bulldogs and Lady Dawgs at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, in a District 25-4A match.

Marble Falls is currently tied for first place of the standings after sweeping Jarrell 19-0 Aug. 27. Burnet is starting district play.

Both programs graduated lettermen with extensive experience playing and succeeding in the sport.

Still, Marble Falls has several returners who have the experience of finishing either first or second in district play and captured a bi-district title last year.

They are Brianna Morales, Amaris Mitchell-Ochoa, Cooper Kelley, Sean Smith and Jared Smith.

“That experience of being in those tough situations in those big matches just gives you a comfortability,” head coach Sam Whitley said. “Now it’s hard to put in the words. You can talk to your teammates about it, but until you’ve actually gone through the fire, you don’t experience it. We’ve had some underclassmen who’ve been there with them.”

Juniors Savannah Hamlin and Logan Hargraves “have been there with them as well,” the coach said.

“It’s just experience,” he said. “You could tell them, but until they go through it, you don’t have a clue of what’s happening. That experience is going to play well for us, those seniors and a couple juniors who are stepping into major roles now are going to help out.”

The program has grown since Whitley, who was hired in May 2021, took over. Back then it had no more than nine boys and he “had to beg girls to come out and play.” This year, even with so many players graduating in May, the program has 40 athletes.

“It’s just a totally, totally different program from where we started at,” he said. “The kids that I coached the first year here, I didn’t have a relationship with them. They really didn’t know me, I didn’t know them. But these kids —these seniors, the juniors and the sophomores — they’ve been with me since they’ve been here, so they know who I am and how I am, they know (assistant) coach (Nathan) Redman and how he’s going to be. So they’re ready for our coaching.”

That’s why Whitley emphasizes the team part of team tennis.

“Everybody is important,” he said. “There is no one person who’s more important than another person. There’s no spot that’s more important than another spot. Every position is valuable, from No. 1 boys singles to No. 6 girls singles to mixed doubles.”

The reason is because of the scoring in team tennis. Each squad has three boys doubles teams, three girls doubles teams and a mixed doubles team as well as six boys singles players and six girls singles players for a total of 19 matches.

The first squad that wins 10 of those matches wins the head-to-head battle and the slash mark in the win column.

“Your No. 1 boy can lose, your No. 1 girl can lose, No. 2 boy and girl can lose, but if you win the rest of your matches, you win 15-4,” the coach said. “So every spot, every position, every player who steps on the court is just as important as the other one.”