In his third year as head tennis coach at Coupeville High School, Ken Stange said he has a good, experienced team returning for the 2007 season.

“Overall, we’re looking pretty good,” he said. “The last two years have been about growth and new people coming in. This year, all our returning players were some of the best ones we had last season.”

Leading the group is senior Brian Miller, who qualified for the quad-district tournament in doubles last year.

“I’m teaming Brian with junior Tony Sherman this year,” Stange said. “Brian played on the number-one doubles team last year and Tony was on the number-two team. They both lost their partners due to graduation, so they will be pairing up to play as our number-one team.

Also returning are sophomores Jordan Lamb and Connor Tassof, who were the number one and number-two singles players for the Wolves last year as freshmen.

“Conner will play first singles and Jordan will be the number-two singles player,” Stange said.

Other strong performers on the squad are junior Jeff Boyer and freshman Ben Hayes who Stange said are going to be the number-two doubles team, and freshman Garrett Knoll and sophomore Travis Curtain as the third doubles team.

“Some of the new players came in talented before they got here and I hope that is going to translate into more wins,” Stange said.

Coupeville plays in a league with just one opponent, Friday Harbor, who Stange said didn’t lose a whole lot of players due to graduation.

“They were really devastating last last year and one of their kids finished third in the state, but I really think that we have a legitimate shot to beat them with the players we have,” he said. “I think that every time we play them it’s going to come down to the last match. It’ll be just a roll of the dice, but we are going to be competitive with them. I think we can beat them if we play well.”