PORT ANGELES — There’s a scene in a forgettable Dana Carvey movie in which Carvey’s character, who has never played tennis in his life, is invited to play a tennis match. Once he’s handed a tennis racket, he takes a baseball swing and drives the ball over the fence, celebrating his home run to the annoyance of his opponent.
Well, in reality, baseball transfers pretty well to tennis, which is demonstrated in spades with the Port Angeles tennis team.
One thing unique about this team is the majority of players also play baseball not only for Port Angeles High School, but for the two Wilder Baseball clubs.
Landon Seibel, Daniel Basden, Wyatt Hall, Jadon Seibel, Lucas Jarnigan, Hayden Woods, Bo Bradow, Milo Whitman and Brady Nickerson all play both baseball and tennis together nearly year-round.
And tennis isn’t just a lark for these baseball players. The Roughriders are actually a very solid tennis team that went 11-4 on the season, good for second place in the nine-team Olympic League. North Kitsap dominates the boys tennis in the Olympic League, but coach Brian Gunderson said the Riders are not far behind the Vikings.
“We got close when they came here,” he said. “They only beat us 4-3, that’s a good step in the right direction.”
The Riders began league tournament play Wednesday trying to qualify singles and doubles players for district.
Gunderson said that tennis has a reputation of being more of a singular sport than a team sport, but that with these kids all playing together virtually year-round, it has brought a camaraderie to the Riders’ tennis team.
“It’s been pretty cool to watch,” he said.
What brings so many baseball players out for tennis?
“Myers,” several of them joked. “Love, love Myers.”
“Myers” is assistant/junior varsity coach Karl Myers, who is also the head coach for the Riders baseball team and the Wilder Senior Baseball club.
“No, no,” Myers said. “They like competing with each other.”
The Riders tennis players have been playing tennis almost as long as they’ve been playing baseball. Not one player on the team is a first-year player. Gunderson said one reason he gets a lot of players is he’s an eighth-grade teacher and he meets and recruits kids at that level to come out for the tennis team when they get to high school.
“That makes me less scary for the freshmen,” he said. Gunderson enjoys watching those kids come out for tennis who perhaps haven’t played that much before and “then start taking it more seriously.”
Was it a concerted strategy to bring so many baseball players into tennis, or was it something that just kind of happened organically? According to team members, it simply just happened.
“It was just friends bringing friends into tennis,” said Jadon Seibel. Players spoke a lot about camaraderie and how well they get along. They have to, playing sports together for essentially three-quarters of the year.
Most of the players say baseball comes first, but two — Landon Seibel and Hayden Woods — piped up and said tennis is the favored sport between the two.
Do baseball and tennis help each other? Unlike the Dana Carvey movie, the two sports do translate to each other, players said.
“The hand-eye coordination,” Landon Seibel said.
“It keeps your arm in shape,” said Bradow.
Most of the tennis/baseball players take a break from sports in the winter, though some of them go snowboarding. Basden wrestles and Jarnigan plays basketball. Kyler Tourbin is the one athlete on the team who plays soccer in the spring.
So, for however much longer the Rider tennis kids keep playing, it won’t be long before most of them are packing away the tennis rackets and bringing out the mitts, unless some of them make it to the state tennis tournament, which is played in May. At that point, they might be faced with a tough choice — tennis or baseball?
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Port Angeles’ Hayden Woods takes aim in his singles match against Chimacum’s Jonah Diehl in September at Port Angeles High School.
