Additional Reporting by Jake Barnes, Staff Writer

While most spring sports teams began tryouts on the black top or indoor, the boys tennis team was outside shoveling their tennis courts.

“We’ve been out there shoveling since last Thursday,” said head coach Mike Scott. “We had an emergency meeting on Wednesday and now we’re two days into tryouts and still haven’t been able to play any tennis yet.”

Returning players and new players alike were out shoveling the two feet of snow left behind by the blizzard of 2010.

“It was kind of fun because we knew we had to try to get it done in time for tryouts so we all worked extra hard and fast but we always find a way to put some excitement into what we are doing,” said returning varsity player, junior JP Ramirez.

The tennis team was not alone, however. The varsity baseball team helped shovel on Friday, Saturday, and Monday.

“We shoveled because the baseball team cares about every sport and since we still have snow on our field we will need to use the courts for tryouts,” said varsity baseball player Nathan Reel.

“The baseball team supports the tennis team because Coach Scott is always at our games helping out selling tickets or something and since we use the courts sometimes too, we were happy to help,” said varsity baseball player Ryan Schubert.

With an average of 20 kids helping per day for 2 hours each day, the courts were finally deemed playable today, Tuesday, Feb. 23.

“We now have to extend the tryouts a little bit and we won’t be able to play as many games per tryout but we’ll hopefully be able to have a team set by Monday,” said Scott.

The tennis team finished with a 6-7 record last year, but hopes to improve this season.

“We knew that the courts needed to be shoveled because we need them in order to be district champs!” said senior Connor Volk.