Our Hero Award

Throughout the course of any season, there are many matches that we feel are going to be close matches. You can start looking at matchups in the paper, in the on the Internet, in my match previews and saying, "Well I know that we'll win #1S and #2S, but they might win at #2D..." and so on and so on. But every year, there is one position that we can count on. One position that every match, we know they are going to win or at least give us a chance.

These people are "Our Heroes." They are the ones that we look to, and they give the whole team confidence.

Some years, this award goes to people who find a way to pull through and deliver in the close matches. This year, there was no such thing for our award winners. Between the winners of this award, a third set was only necessary 3 times. In our big matches this season (Concord, Northridge, Fairfield) each of these players came away with resounding wins. And in our big tournaments (Concord, Merrillville, Wabash) each of these players delivered.

In the end, I had no good way of differentiating these players. So I'm going to have to award this award to 3 people. Because every match we played this season, when these players were playing I knew...

We were going to win #2 singles and #2 doubles.












Depth is what makes a good team great, and Seth Krabill and the doubles team of Russell Klassen and Blake Shetler made our team great. Seth never lost, literally. Russell and Blake lost once, but it was because the opposing coach put his best players against them just to beat our doubles. Against regular lineups, Russell and Blake were only truly challenged once, against current state qualifier Valparaiso, who they BEAT!

These guys are our heroes, we always knew they would win. They always gave us confidence of just needing to find those two more positions. So congratulations to #2 singles and #2 doubles!

Tomorrow: The Amstutz Award for the team's most under-appreciated player...