The Friday Harbor Tennis Team has returned to the courts this fall, in preparation for a light schedule and lots of room to grow.

Coach Kyle Loring is excited to get back on the courts and knock some balls around. “We’re looking forward to continuing to improve,” said Loring. “Last year we had to restart after a couple years off, so our most seasoned guys are starting their second year of tennis, essentially. And last season were starting their first year.”

“So yeah, we’re looking forward to gaining more experience all the time, getting some matches under our belt this year, and continue to work on our strokes,” said Loring.

This season the boys’ tennis team has eight players signed up, including six from Friday Harbor High School and two from Spring Street.

The boys’ tennis team will also enjoy the new courts which were completed last season, adding an extra level of quality to their practices and the games. “These new courts are awesome,” adds Loring. “They’re not only without cracks, they’re actually nice courts on top of that, which is great.”

Although the team doesn’t have a lot of matches scheduled since many of the schools in the same league as Friday Harbor don’t have tennis teams, Loring has hopes to prepare these boys for the district competitions later this fall.

Coach Loring explains that Coupeville, a close rival for teams in the past, dropped out a couple of years ago. “They had a boys team forever, and then their numbers just became too small. We’ve been on the edge a lot ourselves, but this year, we’ve got eight which is a full squad.”

The boys’ first match of the season was last Friday, playing Whidbey Island, who they’ll play again later in the season. Meantime, Coach Loring says they’ll try to pick up a couple of other matches with schools that can just do pickup matches during the season, but won’t be in league. “And then at the end of the season, we’ll go down to districts in Seattle and play all the private schools that are based in Seattle and the Eastside.”