San Benito High seniors Julia Duggs and Leeann Gutierrez started playing tennis in the eighth grade, years after they dabbled in other sports.
Ed Cecena, who is in his 12th season as the girls tennis coach, previously coached boys basketball at San Benito and Anzar, respectively, putting in 21 years combined at the two schools.
Ultimately, all three found peace in tennis, displaying a love for the game that is the very foundation of high school sports.
“Coaching the girls has been really enjoyable,” Cecena said. “I’ve hardly ever had any disciplinary problems and there’s great parental support year in, year out.”
Cecena credits his assistant coach, Rick Espino, for helping the girls get in extra practice time and being an overall positive influence in the program. Espino, who is in his fourth year as the Balers assistant coach, saw Duggs and Gutierrez make plenty of progress in the offseason.
The Balers have enjoyed success the last two years, making back-to-back appearances in the Central Coast Section playoffs. But after losing its entire singles lineup from a year ago, San Benito will be hard-pressed to make a third straight trip to the postseason. And that’s OK with Cecena as long as his players compete and improve.
Two of the top players in the team’s lineup—Duggs and Gutierrez—happen to be best friends who have known each other since they were first-graders at Sunnyslope Elementary School.
Neither played tennis until the eighth grade, when Chris Yoder, the San Benito boys tennis coach, came to their school to talk about the sport and get more people involved in the game.
Gutierrez became interested, and Duggs soon followed. For both players, learning to play the game became an enormous challenge.
“It’s definitely a technical sport that most people don’t realize until they’ve tried to play it at a competitive level,” Duggs said.
Gutierrez and Duggs played No. 1 and 3 doubles last year, respectively, and both players knew they would be going up a level in competition this season. As of last week, the two had already played a challenge match, with Gutierrez prevailing, 8-3.
Expect many more challenge matches between the two, but don’t expect their battles for one of the top singles spot to put a strain on their friendship.
“We both want to win, but we know playing for a position is not more important than our friendship,” Gutierrez said.
At just a shade under 6-feet tall, Duggs is one of the tallest players in the Monterey Bay League. Cecena wants Duggs to attack the net and use her length to put the pressure on her opponents.
“Julia has a good serve and volleys well, and Leeann has solid groundstrokes,” Cecena said.
Rachel Brigantino, who was one half of the No. 2 doubles team last year that lost only one match the entire season, will play a key role at No. 3 or 4 singles. Cecena hopes Brigantino’s competitiveness rubs off on her teammates.
“Her strength is fighting for every point, and we’ll need all of our girls to take that approach,” Cecena said.
A quartet of juniors—Jessica Kirschmann, Morgan Johnson, Megan Hurley and Madison Triolo—are expected to play key roles on the team. Also look for key contributions from Kruthi Battar, Heidi Bribiesca and Shelby Coffeen.
Knowing they would be in for a tough season going up against the top players from each school, Duggs and Gutierrez practiced harder this past offseason than in previous years.
“It’s always fun to play with Leeann because we balance each other out,” Gutierrez said. “We always pick each other up.”
No matter what happens on the tennis court, Duggs has already persevered in life. Born in Guam, Duggs has lived with her uncle and aunt since she was 6. Duggs’ dad died when she was young and her uncle and aunt gained custody rights.
“That happened at an early age and going through that was tough, but it does toughen you mentally,” Duggs said. “Anything tough that happens in life, it translates to the court, knowing you have experience to get through hard times.”
