Sports Editor
The name of the game is tennis, but head coach Brian Christianson wants to make a racket this season.
Christianson, in his 11th year, has five returners and high hopes of competeing in the High Desert League.
 Natikan Choorat returns a shot in a recent lady Broncs tennis practice. Choorat is one of Kern Valley’s returners. |
The five returners this season include seniors Ashley Hampton and Natikan Choorat, juniors Charlotte Padgett and Abbey Stanton and sophomore Shannon Genthner.
Joining the team for the first time are seniors Katie Ruiz, Adrianna Villegas and Caitlyn Rhines, sophomores, Mirisa Smith, Gene Choorat, Trinity Snyder, Dorothy Thoman and Leah Bishop and freshmen Morgan Rivers, Gabby Bell and Britney Love.
In the non-league Christianson wants to see his players developing from match-to-match and game-to-game. He will use these matches to figure out which players are better at singles and which are suited for doubles action.
He added, “The non-league this year is more important than in years past because of the inexperience of the girls we have. This will be a chance for them to play a lot of games and gain experience heading into league play.”
The team to beat is Desert, but Christianson is excited about his team competing against the likes of Desert, Mammoth and Bishop.
He sees the strength of his squad in the way they volley, hit the ball at the net and hitting the ball with authority.
The weakness he sees is in the team’s footwork.
One of Christianson’s challenges is making sure the younger players do not get discouraged. He wants to keep them improving as the season goes on.
Despite the youth of the girls tennis team, Kern Valley will net some quality court time and maybe squeak in to a team CIF playoff spot.
You can’t count them out, because their coach has that same goal in mind.
Being like-minded can make a team do amazing things.
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