Park Hill ready for district title

By Bill Knust

One of the toughest tennis tournaments of the year will be taking place at Oak Park High today, where the Class 2 District 8 Tournament will name a team champion and singles and doubles champions.

Knowing who would fill out those brackets was a little tougher to find out.

Each team’s selection of where their players would play was classified information heading into the seed meeting Monday, May 5.

Park Hill High coach Ryan Kalis was juggling his thoughts up to the last minute, trying to figure out where certain coaches would put certain players.

“We have our doubles teams and our singles guys picked out … maybe,” Kalis said with a pause. “There could be a slight change to that. We are either going to go one way or the other. It kind of depends on what other teams do, and where they put certain players.”

Whatever the plan was, Kalis’ team ended up shaking down as No. 1 singles player Sam Barth and No. 2 singles player Brian Hillix as the singles players, while Luke Pauley and Mike Merchant, and Scott Florence and Paul Jensen, will team up in doubles.

In the end, Kalis is confident in his team’s abilities.

“We have to come to play,” Kalis said. “We have a good shot. There are great doubles teams and individual singles players on other teams, and I think we can compete with those guys for some of those spots. Hopefully, as a team we can all get some things done together to advance on to the next step.”

The best bracket to watch could be the doubles bracket. There is no shortage of quality doubles teams in the Northland.

Oak Park coach

likes doubles draw

The success of a team thrown together during the last part of the regular season has paid off for Oak Park.

After teaming up a week before the North Division Tournament, the partnership of Quinton Osborne and Preston Coughlin earned the No. 1 seed in the doubles bracket of the Class 2 District 16 Tournament. The team of Troy Lewis and Spencer Brinkmeyer \ was the No. 6 seed in the doubles bracket as well.

“I am happy with the draw,” Oak Park coach Phil Gegen said. “Both brackets are going to be tough, solid brackets. There are a lot of good entries.”

The fact Osborne and Coughlin won the North Division Tournament had a lot to do with putting them in doubles play. Osborne has been the No. 1 singles player for Oak Park all season.

“That was a pretty important factor,” Gegen said. “They beat a couple of top-seeded teams in that tournament. They are undefeated heading into districts, and have faced some of the stronger teams. I think they will peak at the right time.”

Panthers hoping

to end season

on strong note



Park Hill South coach Jake Basnight is looking for his team to finish the tennis season strong. With the Class 2 District 8 tennis tournament finishing up today, he knows what to expect.

“We are kind of that middle-of-the-road group right now where we finish a lot of the tournaments right dead smack in the middle,” Basnight said. “The expectations are high, but they aren’t unrealistic.”

Having seen some things at the North Division Tournament earlier this season, he thinks he may have a few players that could eek in.

“Obviously, the North Division Tournament was a big indicator of how things may shake down,” Basnight said. “I gave (David) Matye and (Griffin) Smith the chance to play singles in a tournament since they haven’t got to do that yet. There are some options for us, and obviously you never know what can happen.”

Matye and Josh Boling will play singles for the Panthers, while Smith and Chris Barth will team up in doubles, along with Matt Gherke and Chris Carpenter.