Boone girls tennis hopes to build

The Boone girls tennis team has kicked its season off, now gone through two weeks of practice.

Head coach Shawn Latimer said practice has been pretty good so far, with the weather even being decent up until recently as well, and that the Toreadors have 22 girls out this year.

With a couple of weeks now gone by, Latimer is starting to get a feel for the team and goals he has for it, and he said one of those goals is to get a few girls back to state again, though that’s not his only goal.

Latimer added that as the Toreadors get back on that state track and find success, he’s hoping to have more girls wanting to play more tennis as well, while he’s also aiming for a winning season as a team, despite being young.

Though nine of the 12 girls are underclassmen, the team is also returning four of its top six from last season, which Latimer said is big as the team looks to build on its regional semifinal finish from a year ago.

“I think we did a little bit more over the offseason this year than we’ve had in years past, so hopefully that will pay off a little bit this year,” Latimer said.

He added that Boone added a pair of freshmen who should have a big impact, but how the Toreadors do in the postseason also depends on the draw in opponents they get.

Though the postseason draw may be a factor, Latimer is also looking to his returners to help lead and reach those expectations.

Latimer said Boone has always had a good group of leaders, and it has a pair of seniors who have been leaders before this year, despite not being seniors until this season.

“It’s kind of a natural progression for them now to hop into the full leadership role and they’ve done a nice job at that,” Latimer said. “They’ve pushed some of our freshmen and just overall they do a lot of things to get us going from starting practice to breaking down at the end of practice, they’re always there for us.”

That push to the underclassmen will be needed as the Toreadors are set to face another tough regular-season schedule that Latimer said looks a lot like last season, aside from a new invite on the schedule.

He also said the team should know where it stands pretty early on after it faces Newton in the second week of competition.

“They're going to be a team that I think will put six seniors in their top six,” Latimer said. “We squeaked by them last year, it’ll be interesting to see where we shake out against them this year, but I think that’ll be a pretty good test.”

He added that a lot of the teams on Boone’s schedule are senior-dominated, like Newton, so though those teams will be a tough out this year, he’s hoping Boone will be in better shape next year, as it’s a little bit younger.

The Toreadors will start their regular-season competition at the Marshalltown Invite at 11 a.m. March 28 at Marshalltown High School.