It’s a new season, and that means a new mindset for Emporia High’s Grant Price.
A senior on the Spartans’ boys tennis team, Price has been a singles player his entire high school career. But that’s all going to change this season.
Because of graduation, the EHS boys tennis team lost three of its top four doubles players, leaving senior Kyle deBlonk without a partner.
Enter Price, who will make the transition to doubles this season to pair with deBlonk at the No. 1 doubles spot.
“It’s going to be new,” Price said. “It’s different strategies that I’m not used to. We’ll see how I adapt to it.”
So far, the move has worked well. EHS head coach Matt Irby said the duo of deBlonk and Price had “the possibility of being a really good doubles combination that could do well at State,” while deBlonk gave his new partner high praise for his deftness on the court.
“I think it works out well,” deBlonk said. “He can do it all. He can serve, he can play at the net or just stroke from the baseline. You need a player with that kind of versatility in doubles.”
Price, who just missed out on going to State last year at the No. 1 singles spot, now has focused his attention on becoming a quality doubles player. He said he already had a good on-court chemistry with deBlonk despite having not playing an actual match together, adding that he hoped he could add a different facet to their play from his previous stint as a singles player.
“I just want to pull the experience that I’ve had in singles and bring it to doubles,” Price said.
While the No. 1 doubles combination appears to be firmly set for EHS, the rest of the squad’s positions are wide open, Irby said.
“It’s all about who’s going to step up to fill those spots,” Irby said. “A lot of it is figuring out ... what kind of combinations are they going to play — singles or doubles. We have some extra meets, so we’ll have some guys who will get a chance to play varsity no matter what.”
At the No. 2 doubles position, a youth movement could be afoot. Freshman Chris Reimer has impressed Irby in preseason practices, teaming with sophomore Jonathan Roman to form what could become a quality compliment to deBlonk and Price.
However, Reimer also has looked solid in singles play, and most likely will move between singles and doubles action in the early part of the season to find out which suits him best, Irby said.
“That’s what the beginning of the year is for,” Irby said, “to kind of test out those combinations.”
Joining Reimer in the race for the singles position care a host of juniors, as Irby pointed to Sergio Segura, Mark DeDonder, Adam Coburn, Nathan Ferree, Chase Miller, David Nasrazadani as having the potential to fill the No. 1 and No. 2 singles spots at any time.
However, with the season starting today, the lineups will vary greatly from day to day until the best fits are found, Irby said. For example, in today’s Emporia Invitational, which begins at 3 p.m. today at the EHS tennis courts, Reimer and Roman will man the No. 1 and No. 2 singles spots, respectively, while DeDonder and Segura will make up the No. 1 doubles team with Coburn and Nasrazadani at the No. 2 doubles spot.
“The spots right now are kind of open by committee,” Irby said. “We’ll have to see who plays well and who doesn’t.”
After today’s meet, another chance to try new combinations comes on Thursday when EHS plays host to the Emporia Quad at 3 p.m.. Then on Saturday, Emporia will again play host to an invitational at its home courts, with play beginning at 9 a.m.