Even with the boys’ tennis season having started in early April, the team has only played one match. Due to its unpredictable weather, Park has experienced a wide variety of weather, like rain and snow. Senior captain James Vournakis said the team is disappointed in the lack of outdoor opportunity.

“It’s been rough, but we’ve been trying to make it work by finding ways to play inside,” Vournakis said. “Everybody here wishes we were playing outside.”

Even though the team has moved indoors to practice, coach Greg Holmbeck said coaching itself has not changed, and the boys have been doing the same things aside from dealing with the natural elements. 

“Scheduling and planning have been greatly impacted, but as far as practicing, we work on the same things as we would outside,” Holmbeck said. “We want to be outside because we want to be working through those things the weather affects.”

Although the team has been fortunate enough to have indoor courts to use, freshman Isaac Joseph said that holding practices at Lifetime Fitness has not been ideal.

“Since we haven’t been able to play outside because of the cold temperatures, we’ve had to rent out the Lifetime courts, which costs a lot of money. That’s really hard with such a small budget,” Joseph said.

Junior Frankie Robello said the team is excited and ready to adjust outdoors to play matches.

“It’s going to be hard to adjust to playing outdoors again and as a team we have to start playing more consistently but other than that, we are prepared to play matches,” Robello said.

Despite not practicing outdoors, Holmbeck feels the team is at an equal level with other teams and playing some matches will help with what needs to be worked on during practice. 

“I think we’re as prepared as anybody else given the weather situation that we’ve had,” Holmbeck said. “We’re looking forward to at least getting the first couple of matches under our belt so that we can learn from those and see what we need to work on from there.”

Park will face Minneapolis South at 4:15 p.m. April 27 at St. Louis Park High School.