After a disappointingly short season last year, the St. Louis U. High tennis team is finally back on the courts at Dwight Davis and its ambition has not wavered. One year ago, SLUH tennis had it all: a deep, experienced roster, a clear shot at a state title, and even two nationally-ranked standouts. Then, Covid-19 exploded through the country and struck down the team’s high hopes.

“It’s just disappointing, especially for the seniors that we had last year because we were the favorites to win state and several guys were probably going to do well in individual (matches) as well,” said head coach Brian Kirk. “I mean, we had 11 practices and we were looking really good, but it is what it is.”

Instead of wondering what could have been, though, the program is keeping its focus on this season, and working with a much different team. The varsity squad lost three seniors from last year, and would-be senior Leo De Silva’s departure from St. Louis left many of the team’s top spots available. 

“We’ve got a lot of open spots on varsity and I’m hoping to help the team out and get us back to state just like the last season we had before Covid,” said senior Thomas Binek, one of only two seniors on the tennis team. 

“Every season is different,” said Kirk. “We were expecting some people back, but my philosophy is: I coach who’s here. We’re not going to expect certain people to be here; whoever shows up to play tennis, that’s who we’re going to coach.”

However, despite many other departures, the team is lucky to have No. 1 seed Gus Tettamble returning to the courts. Tettamble, ranked in the top 400 junior players in the country, looks to lead the varsity squad through tough competition this season.

“We have a tough non-conference schedule, there will be 11 varsity matches and two varsity tournaments but I’m still trying to add more,” said Kirk.

Kirk doesn’t discount the team’s talent this year, though, which is mostly made up of last year’s JV standouts. He does, however, recognize the challenging prospect of certain conference powerhouses.

“We’re still going to be good. Ladue’s going to be really tough this year, John Burroughs is going to be really tough this year, they have won state five years in a row. But we’re going to be very competitive,” said Kirk.

Binek hopes to back this push to state by helping to lead the young team, which has not one, but two grade levels with no in-season experience due to Covid-19. 

“I think this year leadership is going to be pretty important, we lost two seniors last year and we had Leo move which really leaves only two seniors on the team. We have a lot of sophomores this year and with the season getting cancelled last year, it kind of feels like a lot of the team is distant.”

Luckily for the upperclassmen, with matches not beginning until the very end of March, the team has ample time to practice and get everyone up to speed. In the meantime, several players will be fighting hard battles to determine the seeding below Tettamble.