SVM previews 2023 boys tennis

Sterling's Brecken Peterson returns a shot to Rock Island's Joe Brune during a tennis meet at Westwood Thursday, March 31, 2022.

Dixon Dukes

Coach: 1st year Leilah Dudziak (1st year)

Top returning players: Damien Beck, senior; Anthony Zarate, senior; Bashar Elbzour, junior; Alex Basilio, junior; Landon Juckel, junior; Owen Winters, sophomore; Derek Miller, sophmore

Key newcomers: Julian Rojas, junior; Gage Farster, freshman; Samuel Gingras, freshman; Jayvian Herwig, freshman; Landon Arbuckle, freshman

Worth noting: “As a coach, I am grateful to have a great group of boys who work hard. They want to make it far and so do I, and I feel that together we can do big things! We have high hopes going forward and I can’t wait to see what the boys bring to the table. We hope to have a great season of success and more than anything, I want the boys to have fun and learn more than what they came in with.” – Coach Dudziak

Dixon's Bashar Elbzour returns a shot to Sterling's Ethan Melcher Thursday, May 5, 2022 at Westwood in Sterling.

Newman Comets

Coach: Lupita Serrano (4th year)

Top returning players: Logan Palmer, junior; Ryan Partington, sophomore

Worth noting: “We lost 7 seniors last year, and with them, most of my varsity lineup. The returning players are working hard to help fill up those gaps.” – Coach Serrano

Sterling Golden Warriors

Coach: Mike Gottemoller (5th year)

Top returning players: Brecken Peterson, junior; Connor Pham, senior; Ben Boze, junior; Hunter Lofgren, senior; Abraham Gallardo, senior; Jack Graves, senior; Elias Jensen, senior

Worth noting: Despite losing some players off an experienced team last season, the Golden Warriors still have plenty of players coming back who played varsity matches a year ago.

Ty Reynolds

Ty Reynolds

Ty is the Sports Editor at Sauk Valley Media, and has covered sports in the Sauk Valley for more than two decades.