The Harvesters tennis team tennis started their spring campaign on Thursday as they traveled to Amarillo to compete in the Randall Tournament.
The team is led by seniors Shubh Doshi and Kallie Douthit. Aside from juniors Leo Nunn and Anna Kirkham, the team is mostly a young group with nine freshman on the team. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily inexperienced.
“They are a very young team but a lot of them played Junior High Tennis,” Head Coach Braydon Barker said. “They’ve played some matches and will have some growing pains playing against varsity kids. Several of the freshmen are pretty solid.”
The Harvesters know they will have Doshi penciled into Boys Singles, with some tinkering to come in the other four events (boys doubles, girls singles, girls doubles and mixed doubles).
“Shubh will play boys singles,” Barker said. “It will be trial-and-error for non-district, kind of like non-district basketball. We will be working on lineups and stuff and then solidify who is playing [by district]. You can switch (players and events) after each event. We will work different combinations in these tournaments so we can see who fits best for the District Tournament.”
Speaking of District, Pampa’s district opponents are Borger, Perryton, Dumas, Hereford, West Plains, Canyon and Randall.
“Canyon and Randall made it to the Regional Finals in Team Tennis in the fall,” Barker said. “They are obviously two really good programs with a lot talent. Borger has a really good Girls singles player.”
There is only one overnight tournament on the schedule, the traditional trip to Seminole dating back to the days of long-time Pampa coach Sarah Corse. Other tournaments include Tascosa and Caprock tournaments.
“We will be at the same tournaments (as district opponents) in non-district so we will kind of get to see how we stack up. The big thing is you can see where their best players are in terms of what event they play. So we can move players as far as matchups go.”
Doshi is the most experienced player on the squad, and will look to repeat his success from last year.
“Shubh and (PHS graduate) Eric Vick were a point away from advancing to Regionals in Doubles. Shubh has the most experience in advancing out of district.”