Despite late season loss to Boulder, Coyotes look to make waves at end of season tournaments
When Monarch Athletic Director Lani Nobles was looking for a new head coach for the Boy’s Tennis program she decided upon J.V coach Christopher Turner to keep the relatively strong Monarch team of the past years on an upward trajectory.
His given name is Christopher, but around the courts his players refer to him as “Coach C.T.” Coach C.T. has guided a young and somewhat inexperienced squad to a solid regular season. The Coyote’s lone match play losses of the season came against Boulder and Fairview. “I think our league is one of the toughest in the state and it’s always tough to have to play the likes of Fairview, Boulder, and Fossil Ridge.”
This afternoon, in the last league match of the year the Coyotes struggled to find their rhythm as a team and lost all but one match to the Panthers. Sophomore Derek Wright was the lone winner of the day at 3 doubles. Turner said, “Obviously the outcomes were not what we wanted but I think today we put into practice a lot of what we have been talking about with the boys.”
In terms of looking forward to the league tournament, which will take place tomorrow, Coach Turner said, “we just have to keep the spirits high.” Going in Turner has high hopes for the team, both at the league tournament and the regional tournament that follows, “I think we have a strong team and have a good shot at finishing in the top 5 teams at the league tournaments.” Due to rain the Coyotes were not able to play Fossil Ridge, one of the tougher teams in the Front Range league.
As the Coyotes look to finishing strong during the tail end of their season they will need to cope with the taxing mental game that can develop within the sport. Turner said, “Tennis is absolutely tough, you’re either out there on the court alone or with one other person and it can be a battle, we try to help coach it in practice, but it is really a tough mental game.”
Despite a less than ideal end to the Coyote’s league play season this afternoon the squad will look to rally tomorrow and produce positive results at the league tournament.
