Bruce Diehl has had good teams before.
In his 20 years as the boys tennis coach at Auburn Riverside, Diehl has coached state runner-ups – the Ravens were second in the state tourney three years straight, from 2001-2003. He’s also coached individual champs, with the doubles team of Dane and Dave Miller taking home the 4A title three years straight from 2001-2003.
He’s even been written up in the Sports Illustrated Faces In The Crowd section, for his team’s 2002 regular season where the Ravens shut out every opponent in their 15-match season, winning all 79 matches and the South Puget Sound League North 4A title.
But this year is different.
“I’ve never got this many kids to districts before,” he said.
After putting together a 14-0 league record and winning the SPSL 3A outright, the team pushed two singles and two doubles teams out of last weekend’s league tourney to districts, which begin Friday.
Freshman Colby Tong led the way with his first-place finish in the singles competition, with brother Adrian Tong, a junior, grabbing fifth-place.
In doubles action, the team of Aaron Nguyen and Conner Airis as well as Kyle Weurch and Gustavo Racy, both moved on to districts.
The only team that failed to qualify was Auburn Riverside’s No. 3 doubles team of Allen Acosta and Conner Wate, who lost a playoff for the fifth and final seed to Enumclaw’s Duncan Ranft and Austin Schuver. Acosta and Wate finished as the sixth-place alternates.
Diehl said the key to the team’s success is the addition of several new players.
“We lost a lot of kids, but we added two new kids (Racy and Colby Tong), who automatically strengthened the top of our team,” he said. “That moved kids down that were strong and that just strengthened the team. Plus our junior varsity team was really strong last year. A lot of those juniors moved up to varsity. So it was just a perfect storm.”
Chemistry played a big part, too, Diehl added.
“These kids love to play with each other. If I cancelled practice because of rain, they would be angry, hanging around my room asking why we aren’t practicing. They just can’t get enough.”
Adrian Tong, a team co-captain, said experience keyed this year’s success.
“I think this year because we have more experience, we are able to pull everything together at matches and play better under pressure,” he said.
Weurch, a three-year letter winner and team co-captain, agreed.
“I think we have a lot of people that have been on the team for more than a year,” Wuerch said. “Last year we had a lot of fresh people who had never played varsity before. Now we’ve got more players with experience.”
The Ravens compete in the district tourney beginning Friday and continuing Saturday at Sprinker Tennis Center in Tacoma. The top five placers qualify for the state 3A tourney, which is May 29 and 30 in Pasco and Kennewick.
