Rowland Hall champs return

Rowland Hall St. Mark's may be the home of the Winged Lions, but a more appropriate mascot for their girls tennis team would be an 800-pound gorilla.

Head coach Tim Sleeper brings back all seven of his varsity players from 2005, a group that took the state tournament by storm, winning four of the five positions en route to a blowout win over rival Waterford.

"Right now we're mostly working on improving," says Sleeper. "We can't get caught worrying about the other teams in 2A."

Although Sleeper's championship roster is clearly not broken, he isn't entirely opposed to the idea of fixing it. A handful of the positions are up for grabs, and Sleeper hopes that the competition will bring out the best in his players.

"We've been practicing very well lately, and that is very important to us," says Sleeper. "Perfect practice makes for a perfect performance."

Sophomore Blake Harries and senior Stephanie Conrad are neck-and-neck in a friendly competition for the first singles spot. Throw in Mallory Rosenthal, a senior who is penciled in at the third singles spot, and you've got the top trio in 2A.

The doubles teams are similarly impressive; Sophie Ashton and Abby Bossart are defending state champions in the No. 1 spot even though they readily admit to having no killer instinct whatsoever.

"Those two have got to be the nicest girls of all time," says Sleeper with a laugh.

Despite the fact that his team is the obvious favorite to take home the 2A crown in 2006, Sleeper isn't buying into the hype. Presently the eighth-year skipper is much more concerned about the progress of his own team.

"We're not really talking about (state) right now," he says. "Our only real goal is to play to the very best of our ability."

Although he isn't likely to lose any sleep over competition at this point in the season, Sleeper is quick to point out that there are plenty of 2A schools that could potentially create problems for his ringer-heavy squad.

"Waterford only lost one or two players at the most, so they're obviously going to be a tough team," says Sleeper. "And southern Utah is always a mystery. They have good teams, but we won't see them at all until state."

Unless one of those southern teams have some kind of secret weapon, it's Rowland Hall's world, and everyone else is just living in it.

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E-mail: tquinn@desnews.com