LARNED — Larned High graduated its singles players, but return a pair of experienced doubles teams in No. 1 doubles D.J. Mead and David Thompson and No. 2 doubles Cadin Limon and Trevor Coulson.
Thompson and Meade competed in the play-in round at the Central Kansas League meet. Limon and Coulson placed eighth in the CKL meet.
Larned tennis coach Mark Lessard has coached 10 years for the girls and will start his first season as head boys coach after serving three years as an assistant coach.
“We feature four players returning from last year, and the rest have very limited tennis experience,” Lessard said. “They’ve all been working really hard in practice and we’ll be very competitive this season.”
Lessard will weigh his options before placing players in their singles and doubles spots.  Some switching of positions may have to take place in order to achieve the best fit.  
“We are currently starting an intra-squad round-robin tournament to see where everyone ranks,” he said. “Then, I’ll make my decision on who will competed in singles and doubles on varsity and junior varsity. I feel we will be very solid in both singles and doubles at the varsity level, once that lineup is determined.” In the past few years, Larned did not feature enough boys competing to gain junior varsity experience. But with 11 players competing, Lessard will schedule some junior varsity competition.
LARNED ROSTER
JUNIORS—D.J. Mead, David Thompson, Cadin Limon, Max Easley, Kobe Kraisinger, Brandon Perez, Alexis DeFrance (French Foreign exchange)
SOPHOMORES— Trevor Coulson, Nick Orth, Nils Hoffman (German foreign exchange)
FRESHMEN—Dalton Penka