TVRA Tri-County Tennis Championships send 10 athletes to WOSSAA

On a beautiful day at Pinafore Park in St. Thomas, 10 athletes punched their tennis tickets to WOSSAA in five different competitions.

The St. Joseph’s Rams led the way with four separate qualifying athletes, but St. Joe’s was edged out by the Parkside Stampeders for the overall Tri-County title.

TVRA Tri-County Tennis Convenor Ryan McCaffrey hopes that a recent change in scheduling helps to give the Tri-County athletes some extra momentum going into the next stage of competition after hosting the Railway City Invitational on Sept. 29.

“For the longest time there has just been a TVRA championship,” explained McCaffrey. “You would often put a team together and they would have to go right into big-time competition and if they lost that would be their whole season.”

Adding another event to the calendar gives a little more preparation time to the athletes who don’t always have long tennis backgrounds.

“There are newcomers [every year],” said McCaffrey. “if you're coming into high school and you have played basketball then you're going to try out for the basketball team. If you have played volleyball you find the same thing. In tennis not very many that join have outside training. Not many are a part of a tennis club.”

Ronan Davidson and Matthew East won the Boys Doubles title at the Railway City Invitational and although they fell short of qualifying for WOSSAA, their season still had some hardware in it.”

When asked how much tennis they play in a year, East replied simply, “We grab a racket and off we go.

“Grip it and rip it,” said Davidson.

But it becomes an incredible part of the high school experience.

“We had a girl once a couple years ago who almost didn't even make the team and then a couple years later she went to WOSSAA for tennis, explained McCaffrey. “if you have that competitive edge and some athletic sense [the students] can pick it up pretty fast.”

WOSSAA will be held on Oct. 15.

Below are the qualifiers from TVRA Tri-County:

Mixed Doubles:
Madina Dankwa/Zach McDermid, Parkside
Maija Berkelmans/Ethan Geerts, East Elgin

Girls Doubles:
Arabella Bloor/Jane Okorhi, St. Joe's
Oriana Belmonte/Gabriela Amando, St. Mary's

Boys Doubles:
Jack Bruder/Lennen Reimer, Glendale
Mason Byers/Benjamin Barlow, WCI

Girls Singles:
Allie Rickwood, St. Joe's
Rachael Li, St. Joe's

Boys Singles:
Charlie Gunn, Parkside
Weston Sheridan, East Elgin