By Connor Bradshaw Van Lier Ribbin’13
THE ROUNDUP 

Last year, Brophy tennis walked off the court for the last time in 2012 as state champions.

This is a new year, however, and a very different team that is gearing up to make a second straight state championship run with high expectations from the returning seniors.

“This is a new year, but I think the players expect a repeat,” said Head Coach Mr. Bill Woods. “We certainly have the talent to win it all.”

Some of that talent consists of #1 player Hudson Blake ’13, #2 player Kyle Chalmers ’13, and #3 Zach Cihlar ’15. 

Players like Blake and Chalmers will have to make the transition to team leaders this season in order to fill the gap of the leaders that graduated last year.

“Being a varsity player since I was a freshman this year is special because I’ll be a captain this season and responsible for making sure our guys do what they have to do and they will,” Chalmers said.

The team is off to a hot start thus far after a tournament in Fresno, during the first weekend in March, where they finished in fifth place out of 113 teams. Blake, Brophy’s number one ranked player, went 4-0 against other team’s number one players.

“I feel excited about being the teams number one ranked player this season,” Blake said. “It’s been a goal throughout my career here and I won’t disappoint anyone.”

Another aspect of Brophy’s team this year is the up and coming youth. There are currently four sophomores in the top six ranked players.

“We have some crazy talent with the lower classmen this year which makes the seniors job that much more important this season to develop players for the future,” Blake said.

As for the goal for the upcoming season, the Broncos aren’t just settling for a state championship.

“Winning state is an obvious goal but we also want to do well in nationals, and take some individual titles,” Chalmers said.