In an attempt to make up for the lost season last year, the De Soto High Schools boys’ tennis team has big goals to make up for the spring season.

As COVID-19 cases spiked during the spring of the 2019-20 school year and in result canceled school for the remainder of the year, the biggest challenge for the team was losing last year’s season.

Sophomore tennis player Eli LeBar has had some hurdles to overcome within his first real tennis season.

“The most challenging part has been actually having to play this year. Last year our season got cut off, so I didn’t really understand what an actual tennis season looked like,” LeBar said. 

Sean Ferrel, senior at DHS and varsity doubles-player, also agrees with LeBar.

“The most challenging thing about this season so far has just been knocking the rust off due to not having a season last year and not being able to play consistently,” Ferrel said.

Despite the impact of COVID-19, all team members are doing everything in their power to stay safe to continue playing.

“COVID definitely played a role in this season, but overall we have been able to deal with it. Having to wear masks and being unable to share water has somewhat changed the culture of the tennis team,” Ferrel said, “But overall these are small things that haven’t affected us too much.

Even through these minor changes to the season, all are hoping it’s enough to stay safe.

This year Ferrel is determined to make the best out of this season since it’s his last year playing high school tennis.

“I’d say not being able to have a season last year really stifled things and put a bigger emphasis on winning and improving this season to honor the seniors who were unable to have a season last year,” Ferrel said. 

A lot of the players have been focusing on any improvements they can make to improve their shots, strokes and strategy.

“I’m looking forward to improving my serve and net play throughout the season and my general tennis ability by having an actual season and hoping to be able to come into next season more confident,” LeBar said. 

As the season continues, both JV and varsity teams have done well and bounced back from a year without play. 

“The team has performed amazingly so far. We still have a couple players undefeated with an always improving JV squad. Varsity has been able to dominate the competition. Really it’s been fun to get back into the swing of things” Ferrel said. 

One of their previous tournaments the Varsity team placed first and our hoping to continue placing. The next tournament will be April 19 at Paola High School.