By Travis Smola
The Vicksburg varsity tennis team had another strong showing to close out the year. But it fell just short of its intended goal.
“I thought we were going to go to state but we didn’t,” Head Coach Warner Offord said after their Regional meet in Sturgis. “We had a good season.”
The team took third place overall in the Conference tournament on Oct. 9. Once again, it was the senior singles stars that finished strong. Ayden Flickinger, Jonathan Perkins and Corbin Wallace all finished in second place. Fellow senior Sam Gearig won the number four singles Conference title.
A week later he was also the only Bulldog left standing as he won again to earn a Regional title, beating out Niles, 6-0, 6-0, St. Joseph 6-1, 6-3, and finally Stevensville Lakeshore, 6-2, 6-1 as his teammates watched. They swarmed the court for him after his victory. “Sam Gearig did a fantastic job today,” Offord said.
“They played to the best of their ability, but some of the other teams were a lot better than us today,” Offord said. “We had opportunity but we just couldn’t finish it.”
This year’s team will lose almost all of its singles stars in Perkins, Wallace and Gearig. They’ll also lose Jacob Henderson, Ricky Laham, David Rutt and Kevin Veld on doubles. “Next year is going to be a long season, we’re going to have a rebuilding season next year,” Offord said. “I just hope that we get back to this position again and have an opportunity to go to state.”