Wednesday Opponent Overview: NorthWood

Last Season Review
NorthWood had another very good season last year. They came off of winning back to back Sectional titles in 2006 and 2007, defeating us in the 2007 final of course. From that 2007 title team they returned 5 players. So this year they were again strong. Preston Swain was ranked the #3 player in the district after only losing three times all season, and every single time was to Deon Shafer of Warsaw. The Hostetter trio of seniors at #2 singles and #1 doubles also enjoyed very good years, finishing highly in the NLC conference. However, #2 doubles and #3 singles struggled most of the year. The team finished the 2008 season at 8-8, coming in 5th in the NLC conference. However, 4 of those 8 losses were of the 2-3 variety, so it was close to a great season.

Returning Varsity Players
Nick Anglemeyer - Anglemeyer did not start out the season playing for the Panthers. He joined late and therefore didn't play in many of the first matches. Because of his late start, he was only playing at the top of his game toward the end of the season. In Sectionals, he played very well and pushed Jonny into 3 sets, where during the regular season Jonny had beaten him handily. Anglemeyer will be the favorite to play #1 singles for the Panthers next season.

Jordan Lantz - Lantz was part of a #2 doubles team who struggled throughout much of the year. In the regular season, Daniel and Mikey beat them 6-0, 6-3 and in the Sectional it was 6-2, 6-1. Lantz and partner simply didn't have the pace and aggressiveness to challenge the better teams that were on their schedule. That made for a difficult season, because the NLC is a conference full of good teams (Concord, Northridge, Warsaw). It will be interesting to see if Lantz switches to singles this year and challenges Anglemeyer for the #1 singles spot, or if he remains at doubles.

Ramiro Arguijo - Arguijo started the year playing varsity, but then was injured for a while and never really broke back into the lineup. He was injured when the Panthers played against us. I do know that he has been taking lessons throughout the winter, but talk to Seth Krabill to get the inside scoop on him, because Seth has been in some of the sessions with "Miro."

Other Possible Varsity Contributors
Shiv Patel - lost 8-0 to Ben Mast, beat Austin Loucks 8-5
Corey Diener - lost 8-1 to Seth Krabill and lost 8-0 to Matthew Amstutz
Dylan Humble - lost 8-0 to Kyle Miller and lost 8-0 to Blake Shetler
Rushiv Patel - lost 8-0 to Misha Rebec/Nick Rebec and lost 8-0 to Claude Stickler/Jake Gerig

Outlook
Graduating 5 players is always difficult to replace. We know that as well as any team as we watch 6 varsity performers leave for next season. However, we had a 16-0 JV team looking to move up and replace those that are departing. NorthWood's JV team was 2-11-1, and only won a total of 13 positions last year. Cycles in team strength are a part of a program, especially in high school athletics where you cannot recruit. So it looks as if next year may be a bit of a down year for the Panthers. But certainly, we can expect for them to rebound and rebuild in the near future.

Blessing
We continue to pray that God will bless this team in many ways throughout this year.