Coaches face doubles dilemma

EDMOND — Edmond North tennis coach Brittany VanCleave is trying to find what works.

VanCleave said every year is the same motto for the Huskies: Work for first.

The program has produced six team championships in girls tennis in the past decade and is coming off a secondplace finish last season.

But to compete for that team title this year, VanCleave said she’s thinking about breaking up her state runners-up pair in Class 6A No. 1 doubles in seniors Kinsey Fields and Lora Boggs and have them compete as the team’s two leading singles players instead.

“We are trying to find what works best together,” VanCleave said. “We need chemistry in every spot and so right now we are just trying to lock in those pieces.”

As high school tennis ramps up across the state, coaches are using this early season period to tinker with lineups and see who on their team might work best playing doubles and who might be best as a singles player.

Some schools are facing the opposite decision.

At Norman North, the two-time defending Class 6A No. 1 girls doubles champion pair of sisters Nina and Natalia Jabrzemski are no more after Nina Jabrzemski graduated. Natalia is expected to also compete in singles this year.

Heritage Hall boys tennis senior Trey Huelskamp is in the same position as he won the doubles title in Class 4A No. 2 last year but will compete as in singles this season.

VanCleave says it’s a lot more complicated to make a doubles pairing than just throwing your two best players out on the court together.

“It’s harder than you think, especially if they don’t play with each other a lot,” VanCleave said.

“They have to figure out not only each other’s games but emotionally they have to know how to react. You have to know how to pick the other up.”

For Shawnee boys doubles pair Brennan Roark and Zac Young, the two think their friendship off the court has helped them to back-toback state tournament appearances.