Park Hill Tennis brings back dominant team

The Park Hill Boys Tennis team has fairly consistence goals from year to year. Last year’s team accomplished those goals convincingly by going undefeated in conference, went on to win the conference tournament, and then the district tournament before sending two players to state. One thing you won’t hear too often though is that their top goal is related to academics.

“Our top goal is to have the highest team GPA at Park Hill High School,” 12th year head coach Ryan Kalis said. “That’s a huge goal for these guys, every year we strive for it.”

With that in mind, it should be another exciting year for the Trojans as they return all six of their top players and hope to build on what could be deemed as a program with high expectations. Since Kalis’ first season in 1999, the Trojans have gone an impressive 119-48 and haven’t had more than four dual losses in a season since 2001.

Seniors Sam Barth and Mike Merchant will lead the way as they look to repeat their first and second place district finishes and state qualifying performances last year, this time with a state title ultimately on their minds. Both will be playing tennis in college next year. While Merchant has committed to Truman State University, Barth is currently undecided.

Brian Hillix returns for his fourth year as a varsity player along with Brian Willis, Austin Caldwell, and Michael Jones. Kalis talked about how all of his returning players have raised the level of their game since last year and he’s excited about how sharp they’ve started out this spring.

The Trojans won’t have time to relax once the season starts as they’ll be facing stiff competition from beginning to end including meetings against state champion Rockhurst, Liberty, Blue Springs South, and rival Park Hill South along with tournaments around the metro.

“We try to schedule the top teams to know where we’re at,” Kalis said of the schedule. “We’ve come away with wins against them in recent years, but it’s always close and I have a great respect for their programs.”
A simple theme of working each day to get better is what they focus on.

“110% effort = 110% success has been a theme through the years and just putting in the time, energy, and effort,” Kalis said. “You get out of it what you put into it.”

With an approach like that on the court as well as in the classroom, you can expect this Trojan Tennis team to collect more recognition this season.