PCHS Miners boys tennis team takes the home win against Jordan

The Miners Tennis Tournament against Jordan High School at the PC MARK on Thursday. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — On Tuesday, April 1, the Park City High School Miners Boys Tennis Team beat the Jordan High School Beetdiggers at a Municipal Athletic Recreation Center (MARC) home tournament.

Varsity plays five different matches: first singles, second singles, third singles, first doubles, and second doubles. Of those five matches, the team that wins three or more wins the matchup. The Miners were the winners as they took third singles, first doubles, and second doubles.

There was great energy from the doubles team of seniors Scotty Morris and Adan Rose, and singles player Charlie Ginster at third singles also had some solid play.

Halfway through the season, this was their third region match, and they’ve played one out-of-region match. “We’ve played four matches, and we’ve definitely come a long way since from where we came,” Head coach Cole Lee told TownLift. “We lost our first match to Murray, and it was a bit of a surprise for our team. We have, an absolute great combination top to bottom of seniors, upper classmen and lower classmen, a nice even mix of seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen. We are a little heavy on the freshmen and sophomores in varsity who hadn’t played high school tennis before that first game, just getting accustomed to the competitive atmosphere. Since that loss at Murray, we’ve definitely turned things around for the better. We had a win at Mountain View and then at Stansbury last week. Tonight was our first home match, and it went very well.”

A big part of Lee’s philosophy, sort of taking over the team, is anybody who wants to play tennis will get the chance to play. “We’re there to coach anyone who wants to be there.” It’s a big reason why the team size has gone from 14 last year to 28 this year, “We picked up a bunch of  juniors and seniors who hadn’t been on the team before and have caught the tennis bug a little bit later in life, and it’s perfect timing.”

Senior Seth Rothchild, like many Miners, has found the perfect time to first join this Spring sport tennis team the day after his competitive ski season ended. He’s recently traveled to Alaska, New York, Minnesota, Colorado, and Vermont with his Nordic ski jumping team. “It’s great cross-training,” He told TownLift. “The coaches of most sports encourage participating in multiple sports because there are many benefits, mostly because it’s just fun.” 

Needless to say, he doesn’t mind the snow. However, as it was snowing during this tennis match, he and the others were all grateful to have the MARC as Park City High School’s official training and competition venue. It’s the only indoor facility of all the schools in the league. 

Everybody makes it to State in 4A, which is an automatic feeder, but they didn’t necessarily perform their best last year or the year before. Three years ago, the year Lee came on as an assistant coach, they had a little more success at State. They were 5A. The Miners were 5A in Tennis for the first of his two years, up till last year, and that was a real challenge, competing with Brighton and Highland and Olympus week in and week out. The switch to 4A was good, but last year was a building year for the team in terms of who they had on the roster. 

Lee grew up in Park City, attending Jeremy Ranch Elementary School and through the District schools before graduating from Park City High School. He added, “This Miners tennis team is an energetic, exciting, talented, and hard-working bunch of athletes, and the rest of our season is shaping up to potentially be amazing.” 

He said he couldn’t do what he does without the fantastic help of his assistant coach, Tim Donnely, another longtime local.

The Miners boys tennis team then traveled to Salt Lake City on Tuesday, where they played East High. East is going to be in Park City’s competition region next year. “I wanted to get a match in with them because we want to challenge our team and sort of forge them through fire.” That tournament ended with a win for the host team, 4-1. However, Park City’s one varsity win came at one double, the senior duo of Adam and Scott, who Coach said “are starting to pick up some steam.”

Overall, from the competition with East High, Coach added, “Our singles players played some really good players, so it was a great learning experience for them.” He continued that he’s “proud of the work the rest of the team has been putting in; the results are showing.”

Next up, they host Tooele on Thursday.

Next year, Lee is looking forward to the bittersweet fact that eight new high school-designated outdoor tennis courts are in planning phases to be built on the extended campus grounds, four of which have the potential to be “bubbled up.” It’s bittersweet because the MARC has successfully served as the Miner’s home away from school for a long time.