Lack of players forces Westland to cancel season

[FormerWildcat]

Not good.

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content...3/25/Westland-boys-tennis-cancels-season.html

Lack of players forces Westland to cancel season

Longtime Westland High School boys tennis coach Dan Witteman will have a break this spring that he never wanted to receive.

Witteman, who guided the Cougars the past 43 seasons, said the team will not be offered this year because of a lack of interest.

Witteman said there was sporadic interest during the preseason, but once it was evident he couldn’t form a complete team, he and athletics director Mike George decided to cancel the season.

The team graduated five players after last season, and Witteman indicated then it might be difficult to form a team this spring.

Read more:
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content...3/25/Westland-boys-tennis-cancels-season.html

 

[Yappi]

Disappointing to see this, especially at a bigger school like Westland. OHSAA lists them at 626 boys. But this is also something that coaches need to start focusing on, you can't simply wait for the kids to show up anymore in any HS sport. You need to walk the halls and encourage kids to play. Unfortunately, too many kids don't consider playing sports for their school team to be important anymore.

 

[Upper 90]

Yes agree 100%. Like it or not, coaches will need to seek out some athletic players that maybe play football or soccer but don't play a spring sport like baseball. An athlete that has never played tennis can learn pretty quickly and actually play a doubles match. Now that is against like or lower competition of course. My son had never played except goofing until a sophomore, one of his former PE teachers caught him in the hall and said I need you to play tennis. As a junior he was all league doubles, hopefully even better as a senior. He was a soccer/basketball kid.