Prior to this season, Kyle Skinner and Eric Johnson approached
San Benito boys’ tennis head coach Chris Yoder with a simple
request, albeit one that was somewhat experimental but was sure to
alter the lineup somewhat drastically. For the end-of-the-year
Tri-County Athletic League Finals, Skinner and Johnson, who
represented the Balers’ No. 1 and No. 4 singles options a year ago,
wanted to play as a doubles pairing for the postseason
tournament.
”
I told them, ‘If you want to play TCAL doubles, then you’ll have
to play doubles in the TCAL all year,’
”
Yoder said.
”
They’re getting experience and previewing the competition with
all the teams they may be competing against.
”
HOLLISTER
Prior to this season, Kyle Skinner and Eric Johnson approached San Benito boys’ tennis head coach Chris Yoder with a simple request, albeit one that was somewhat experimental but was sure to alter the lineup somewhat drastically.
For the end-of-the-year Tri-County Athletic League Finals, Skinner and Johnson, who represented the Balers’ No. 1 and No. 4 singles options a year ago, wanted to play as a doubles pairing for the postseason tournament.
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“I told them, ‘If you want to play TCAL doubles, then you’ll have to play doubles in the TCAL all year,'” Yoder said. “They’re getting experience and previewing the competition with all the teams they may be competing against.”
And so far, although San Benito is 1-2 in the TCAL and 2-3 overall, Yoder is pleased from the results yielded by the preseason experiment. The switch has moved the Balers’ strength to the doubles category, where Skinner and Johnson are undefeated through TCAL play and the No. 2 team of Sunny Singh and Brian Becerra are undefeated overall, while an up-and-coming group in singles has struggled early, but have gained valuable experience toward the end of the season, and most especially, toward next year.
After all, there’s not a single senior anywhere in the lineup.
Sophomore Jacob Garcia is at No. 1 singles; freshman Nick Trillo occupies the No. 2 spot; frosh Alex Reilly is at No. 3; and junior Geoff Muzik rounds out the singles category at No. 4.
In doubles, both Skinner and Johnson are juniors, Becerra and Singh are both sophomores, and San Benito’s No. 3 team is made up of freshman Andrew Panger and junior Jacob Panger.
“What it does is take our No. 1 and No. 4 players out of the singles and into the doubles,” Yoder said. “But we’ve got a couple new freshmen coming in and getting some experience, which is good too because they’re probably gonna be singles players in the future.
“We’re just trying some new stuff out and I’m encouraged by it. I think it will be better for us as a team, despite dropping the last two matches.”
San Benito fell 5-2 to defending league champion Salinas on Tuesday at the Ridgemark Golf and Country Club, five days removed from a 4-3 defeat to a much improved Palma team.
Still, the Balers are looking to the future and are hoping their youthful lineup develops within their prescribed positions this year and the next.
Skinner and Johnson said part of the reason behind their move to doubles was reflective in the makeup of the team at that point. Prior to the 2011 campaign, the two saw a weak doubles division and a stronger singles category, at least strong enough that it could withstand the absence of the No. 1 and No. 4 option from a year ago.
“We felt we had a strong singles team even without Eric (Johnson) and I there, and not as strong of a doubles team,” Skinner said. “Eric and I also thought we could team up and try to do what last year’s team did.”
“Try to win TCAL,” Johnson added.
For the last two years, San Benito’s top doubles pairing has advanced to the championship at the TCAL Finals, only to fall one match short of a bid toward the Central Coast Section Boys Tennis Championships. Skinner and Johnson are set out to prove owning the No. 1 label as a San Benito doubles team isn’t some sort of a Baler jinx.
“We’re gonna break it, for sure,” Skinner joked about the doubles curse. The Balers haven’t advanced anyone to CCS since singles player Eddie Barrios in 2000.
“We’re really proud of what they did (the last two years),” Johnson added. “But we want to take it this year.”
Although Skinner and Johnson are getting a preview of its TCAL competition, there is always the chance of a pair of singles players teaming up as a doubles pairing for the TCAL Finals, which has been the case at least the last two years.
In 2009, San Benito’s Jon Rudolfs and Michael Jensen lost in the finals to a thrown-together team from Salinas, which included the Cowboys’ No. 3 singles player. A year later, the same happened to Jensen and new partner Connor Bray, who fell to a pairing from Everett Alvarez that boasted the Eagles’ No. 1 singles player in P.J. Vargas.
“We’re singles players who are gonna play this year at doubles, so we’ll have the advantage,” Johnson said.
While many singles players revert to doubles before the TCAL Finals, usually in order to simply reach CCS and avoid going up against the league’s best tennis player, this year’s TCAL doesn’t necessarily feature that one dominating athlete that has controlled the singles division like years past.
In other words, singles players may just stick to the singles division come TCALs.
“There’s no real huge threat. It just depends on the day,” said sophomore Jacob Garcia, who is San Benito’s No. 1 player this year at singles. Garcia occupied the No. 2 spot a year ago, but got bumped up once Skinner vacated the top position.
Garcia noted the big step from No. 2 to No. 1, though.
“This year, Chris (Yoder) and I have been working on my patience and building up my game and learning the play and technique so I can get ready for future years,” Garcia said. “I think we’re looking good. We’re winning and we’re losing, but all the matches are close. All the matches are very close.”
Aside from Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to Salinas, the Balers’ other two losses came by 4-3 margins.
Narrow defeats are often a sign of inexperience, though. But they can also be a sign of just how close a team is from getting over the hump.
“I think we have a lot of potential going into TCAL because we’re getting better everyday,” Garcia said.
Added Skinner, “It’s just a matter of time before they start kicking it in.”
San Benito is scheduled to host Gilroy on Thursday at the Ridgemark Golf and Country Club. Match time is 4 p.m.
Salinas 5, San Benito 2
Singles — 1, SALN, Sebastian Pagano def. Jacob Garcia 6-3, 6-2; 2, SAL, Ty Giacalone def. Nick Trillo 6-0, 6-2; 3, SAL, Jeff Reeves def. Alex Reilly 6-4, 6-2; 4, SAL, Tyler Batchelder def. Geoff Muzik 7-6, 6-0.
Doubles — 1, SANB, Kyle Skinner and Eric Johnson def. Aaron Moss and Michael Liu 7-6, 6-4; 2, SANB, Sunny Singh and Brian Becerra def. Matt Perlman and Alex Wolf 7-6, 6-4; 3, SALN, David Sayas and Joe Brigantino def. Jacob Panger and Andrew 6-4, 6-1.
