Westside tennis player Jobe Thornsbury comes to the net in a match with Wyoming East.
Consolidation and a little help from Europe have combined to give Westside a strong boys tennis team it its first year. If you combine Baileysville, Oceana and Germany, you've got a pretty good team. joked WHS coach Dennie Rose, whose squad is off to a 7-2 start. The Renegades feature Mike Cline, a state tournament qualifier at Baileysville last year, at No. 2 singles. Matt Grubb and Jobe Thornsbury, who played for Oceana last season, are Nos. 3 and 4. Mike Kurz, a foreign exchange student from Germany, is the No. 1 seed. All have winning records, and Thornsbury is a perfect 9-0. Those four play doubles also, along with Ty Lugar and Mike Goodson.
We've got a pretty good team, Rose commented. They're real competitive, and they play smart. They play well together in doubles. Westside's only losses have come to the region's perennial tennis powers, Beckley and Bluefield. We're playing a pretty good schedule, Rose said. The Renegades will take aim at the Class AA-A Coalfield Conference championship this Thursday and Friday in Beckley. I've never won(the conference tournament), noted Rose, who started the Baileysville program in 1991. So I'd really like to win it this year. He figures his toughest competition will come from county rival Wyoming East, winner of the last three conference titles. Westside beat the Warriors, 6-1 in Pineville last Wednesday, but most of the matches were close. I think the strongest competition will come from East, Rose noted. There are a couple of schools that have some really good individuals, like Liberty and Shady Spring. This year has been really good, the coach added. They're real nice kids, and I really like them.
Abvoe article by John Conley of the Independent Herald.
