Monday event conflicted with studies
By Mike Moore
Sports Correspondent
A season in which Catholic Central finally fielded a full girls tennis team ended with only one player on the court.
Most of the Lady Toppers reluctantly chose to skip the WIAA subsectional at East Troy. The opening matches were scheduled during school hours, on Monday morning.
“The majority of them felt they couldn’t miss school for the day to come to their matches,” Coach Jenny Smith said.
The absentees included the two players Catholic Central used at the top two singles spots in last month’s Metro Classic Conference tournament, senior Jana Krien and junior Michelle Tanner. That bumped Courtney Kienast up to No. 1.
Lacking an established No. 1 singles player, Smith rotated Kienast and other girls into that spot during the season “so they could have the challenge of playing up a little bit.” But the senior generally competed at No. 3 singles.
Factoring that in, Smith was pleased with Kienast’s play despite a 6-2, 6-1 loss in the first round to Big Foot’s top player, Maddie Palmer. That followed a team-best, fourth-place finish in the conference tourney.
“The fact she could win a few games against a (No.) 1 singles player was exciting,” Smith said. “Courtney, as a player, has just really come into her own this year. This last half of the season, you could see it really clicked for her.”
Smith respected the girls’ decision to focus on studies over tennis, noting that six of them are seniors who are preparing for college. But she’s unhappy that they were forced to choose one or the other.
“It’s not their fault WIAA has it scheduled at that time,” she said. “They have to figure out, ‘OK, why are we playing these matches on a Monday during the school day?”
Now in her seventh year as Catholic Central coach, she said the schedule has been set up that way ever since. The number of players who elected not to play this time magnified her concerns.
Tom Shafranski, an assistant director at WIAA who oversees tennis, replied by email to a question about the scheduling policy.
“Subsectionals can be scheduled on Monday or Tuesday, as most conference meets across the state are held on Thursday, Friday and/or Saturday of the previous week,” he wrote. “WIAA sectional meets are scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday following subsectionals.”
Edgewood took top team honors in the East Troy Subsectional with 24 points.
Catholic Central won just one conference match during the 2014 season, but Smith said she prefers to assess progress from season to season. With other sports competing for students’ attention, she has worked hard through youth programs to build interest in tennis.
The roster built up to double digits this season, which meant the Lady Toppers could reliably fill the singles and doubles slots in each competition — except the biggest one.
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