The St. Louis U. High racquetball team draws nearer to beginning its winter campaign. On Friday, Nov. 13,  SLUH will take on Lindbergh. With the regular season coming fast and the final two days of ladder play coming this week, competition is heated between seniors Danny Juerguns and Oliver Allen for the number one spot.

Senior Nick Peterson and juniors Clark Martin, Ben Harmon, Max Telken, Will Shorey, and Danny Philips are among the top juniors fighting for the other six spots on varsity, including a doubles team for seeds seven and eight. 

Besides the varsity teams, this week is the last two ladder play practices for the Varsity 2 and JV teams.

 “I think the question going into this year was do we have enough play time to adequately figure out where people fit and where people's skill level is,” said head coach Stephen Deves about how the teams are unfolding. “But even with the short four-week preseason play I felt like we had a lot of good information on players and players fell into their places pretty comfortably.”

Fortunately for the coaching staff, many of the players trying out for varsity traveled to Portland, Ore. for the National Tournament last spring. The coaching staff has taken Nationals last year into great consideration because of the shortened preseason.

“Will Shorey, who ended up going very far in the bracket at Nationals last year, put a big marker on him as someone who can play hard and work hard,” said Deves. “Max Telken is another great example after he went to the championship and it has showed us how strong their level of play was and how they will come back this year with a good level of play.”