Collinsville boys tennis coach Emma Houshmand looks for continued improvement as she prepares for her second season as the Kahok head coach.
"We had some positive things happen last year," Houshmand said. "We showed some improvement on the court and that translated into some more wins in the record."
The potential is there for even more victories this season although the Southwestern Conference appears as rugged as ever.
"A lot of the teams did not graduate many seniors," Houshmand said. "It is really going to be tough in the conference."
The Kahoks graduated six seniors although many of them were not at the top of the singles lineup.
The team's top player, junior Sean Courtney, returns. He opened his sophomore season at No. 2 singles but moved up to No. 1 about midway through the season and stayed there.
"Sean continues to improve," Houshmand said. "He has a lot of power but he can also change the pace. He is also doing a better job of analyzing his opponents."
It is tough for any top high school player these days to just pick up a racket at the start of practice in March and hope to compete against the top players in the Southwestern Conference. Houshmand said that Courtney did a lot of work on his game in the off-season and hopefully that will start to play dividends during the season."
Courtney has established himself as the clear cut No. 1 player but there are a group of about three players who are competing for the other top spots in the singles lineup. They all have varsity singles experience. Senior Evan Lloyd played in the two and three spots in the order last year, senior Mitchell Shipton was primarily at No. 4 singles while junior Ricky Hua was at No. 5.
"Those three guys are pretty close talent wise and there is some good competition among them right now." Houshmand said.
Junior Zac Sweet is another returning varsity singles player who provides depth and experience for the Kahoks.
"There is also a group of younger guys who are building their games up," Houshmand said. "It will be tough to give them too much experience, even in doubles, in the conference. But I would like to give them an opportunity to see what they can do in some of our non-conference matches. One of the goals for the season is to see these younger guys develop their games and of course we would love to keep improving on our win total."
The Kahoks do not open the 2011 season until April 5 when they travel to Civic-Memorial.
