Havre High tennis teams still hoping to play this weekend

by Havre Daily Staff

The Havre High tennis teams got through a grueling two days of the Havre Invitational last weekend. Now, the Blue Ponies will be road warriors for the rest of the season. If the weather cooperates that is.

Havre was supposed to head to Cut Bank for the Class A Duals this weekend, a tournament in which the Ponies would face Class A rivals from the west in Polson and Libby, as well as East Helena and others. Cut Bank, though, canceled the event Tuesday due to the winter storm that is currently hitting Montana and elsewhere, so that leaves the Ponies scrambling for competition.

"It's tough because you can't really find a way to make up these weekend tournaments," Ferguson said. "Everybody's schedules are full, and we play mostly on the weekends, so it's not really feasible to make up tournaments that get rained or, in this case, snowed out. And that really hurts, because losing Cut Bank, that's four full matches our kids won't get now. And we need those matches, so it's really disappointing."

Ferguson added that East Helena is willing to travel to Havre Saturday to play the Ponies in a dual, but the forecast worsened after the Ponies and Vigilantes decided to play, so that dual may not happen either.

So, if the Ponies are unable to play at all this weekend, they're down to just four weeks ahead of the divisional tournament.

"It feels like we've hardly played at all," Ferguson said. "Really, we've gotten only two weeks of competition, and now we're looking at April being almost over. So that's tough. But, we'll just keep forging ahead. We'll do what we can."

Ferguson said that he is fortunate that his varsity teams are seasoned, with a senior-heavy boys squad, led by returning All-Conference performers Josh Currie, Trenton Maloughney, Caleb Spangler and Theron Peterson, while his girls squad is also experienced at the top of the lineup. So, lack of court time won't be as detrimental. But, even advanced players need practice, and that's something else this latest winter storm, and a not-so-good forecast for the remainder of this week, is getting in the way of.

"We have to be on the tennis courts to get better," Ferguson said. "The gym is what we make do with, but in order to really take those big steps forward, we have to be on the courts, practicing, working hard, playing matches. That's how you get better in this sport. Repetition is the biggest key to improving, and there's really no room for days off. So hopefully, things turn around quickly. Also, the meets are rewards for practice. The kids work hard all week long. We push hard. We really grind. And the payoff is getting to play in this matches, so it really is unfortunate when you can't.

"Our kids, though, they're great," he added. "They're resilient. They'll deal with whatever is thrown at them. That's one of the things I love about this group. They'll keep on fighting, whether it's the opponent, or the weather, or sometimes both, they'll battle.."

The Havre junior varsity is set to host Great Falls Central and Chinook Tuesday, while the next varsity meet is for next weekend when the Ponies travel to the Hardin Invitational for the first time.