Despite uphill climb, Trojans win third consecutive district title

Losing several of their top players to graduation from a quarterfinal round appearance in the Missouri state tennis playoffs last year, the Park Hill boys tennis team knew that in order to return again this year it was going to be a lot more difficult and require even more work. Led off by Michael Jones’s win (6-3, 6-0) in the top singles matchup last week, the Trojans made quick work of St. Joe Central in the Class 2, District 16 tournament title matchup with their 5-0 victory. The Trojans not only won their third district title in as many years, but also gave themselves another shot at advancing to another quarterfinals appearance this weekend as they square off against Park Hill South in the stat sectionals to be held at Minor Park in south Kansas City. The winner faces off against the Blue Springs South/Rockhurst.

“If you would have asked me at the beginning if we would have been in contention for the district title, I would have said it was going to be tough,” Coach Tim Kalis said. “But I’m extremely pleased with the way the guys have progressed throughout the season. It’s been a climb as we hit some lulls along the way, but they talked about it at the beginning of the season and marked it on their calendars as their goal.”

Compared to having a host of heavy hitters at the top of their lineup as they have in years past, the Trojans focused on depth and the intangibles heavier this season along with some good old fashioned athletic training.

“The biggest thing we’ve done differently than years past is we’ve focused more so on conditioning and more running. Knowing we don’t necessarily have the biggest hitters has led us to focus on grinding teams down more,” Kalis said.

While all of the Trojans’ varsity will be playing in the team portion of the sectional round, the newly formed doubles par of Austin Caldwell and Blake Barnard also qualified for the sectional round as individuals with their 6-3, 6-2 victory over Liberty’s doubles pair. Caldwell, a senior, and Barnard, a freshman, were only recently paired together, but have quickly become familiar with each other’s tendencies.

“We just started playing together a couple weeks ago and that was really just in practice, but we’ve gotten to know each other’s playing styles real quick,” Caldwell said.

“The down the line shot with my forehand is my favorite,” Barnard said of his strength.

“The dippers, dipping in the low ones, but we’re both really good at the net,” Caldwell added.

Although having just recently been put together as a pair, Caldwell’s experience as a key member on former successful Trojan teams brings a familiarity with big matches has made for a good combo when mixed with the young Barnard’s talent.

“Those two specifically asked to play with each other and try it out. Austin has kind of been a staple on our teams of the past so that has really helped with his experience. Blake has a little more firepower in terms of the ground strokes in his game, so they’ve complimented each other very well,” Kalis said.

When asked what will make the difference for the two going into this week’s matchup against Alija Omerovic and Greg Tluscik of North Kansas City, Caldwell's response was almost a directive to Barnhard.

“You have to treat it like any other match, there’s more pressure, but you can’t be nervous about it,” he said. “Getting to the net is huge which we’ve both been doing a really good job at; that’s how you win it.”