The Levelland Lobo Tennis Pack recently held their two-adays training camp for the varsity and junior varsity team before heading into their regular fall season.
Head Coach Jefferey Braziel feels that his athletes have made strides in their progression in the past year and in summer tournaments and workouts.
Last year, the program had five seniors graduate from the team and that did some damage to the squads, Coach Braziel says that this upcoming year will be a good one with all the returning talent they have coming back and some young talent that is improving everyday.
“Summer workouts were great, I missed a couple of weeks due to some personal issues, but even with me being gone we had huge numbers come out and perform,” said Coach Braziel. “The kids were very excited to come out and show what they had. The lowest number of kids we had come out at the camps and summer workouts were about 25, but on average we had around 30 kids show up everyday. The highest number we reached was about 40 kids, so I’m really excited to see what the future holds for us.”
For Levelland Tennis the future is bright as the varsity level of tennis consists of only two seniors in Martin Nieland and Jasmin Mendoza. The rest of the team comprises of sophomores and juniors that are improving everyday and putting 100 percent effort into what they are doing.
The group ended last season as a team with a record of 11-10, with the girls side going 19-1 and the boys record improving more than what they had done last year.
Coach Braziel feels that the team had a good season making the playoffs last year and they plan on going even further this year with a strong supporting cast.
“We’re taking the right step forward with our program especially with all the young talent and returning talent we have for both boys and girls,” said Coach Braziel. “We have some big names in our program that are getting the hang of things and what to expect when we do go out and play. We have a really young team that I’m excited for, but for the most part it really lets us see what direction we were going in with me in charge; we made the playoffs but lost a heartbreaker in the playoffs 10-9.”
Expanding on the underclassmen in the program, Coach Braziel sees some good underclassmen that are making a name for themselves.
Michael Cannon who was a freshman on Varsity last year has improved on the depth chart to Levelland’s number three spot. Another sophomore that was on the team was Nathan Ellis who is number one on the depth chart and is putting in all his effort to get better this year.
Both of those players make up the boys doubles team and have shown good growth as players with their team chemistry and communication, which is so important in the game of tennis.
For the girls side, both Alexis Sanchez and Daisy Perez are showing up everyday and putting in as much work as the boys are and have no signs of slowing down with their work ethic.
This upcoming season’s goals are simple: improve on both sides of the ball and show some competitiveness. Coach Braziel feels that they are ready to take that next step as a group and get even further than they did last year and hopefully win district.
“Our biggest expectations as a group is leadership. We’ve had leadership camp and we want them to really improve on that part as a team” said Coach Braziel. “We expect to see a lot of growth, make the playoffs, try to be competitive, and set our goals high. We want to win district, but for us that is really tough since the teams in our district aren’t pushovers and we have a dogfight every year with them and the surrounding schools in our area.”
The groups first game is against Sweetwater and Lakeview August 10, at the Levelland High School. The tennis team had a pool play week August 4-5. The team will start district play against Lamesa, August 29, as the away team.