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SportsMonday, August 27, 2007 11:16 PM CDT
Intercity tennis talent on rise
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While other Intercity athletic programs garner attention throughout the state as models of success and consistently, girls’ tennis seems to go unnoticed.

That could soon change.

With an influx of talented players, Intercity girls tennis appears headed in the right direction.

“It’s the programs in Bloomington-Normal,” Normal Community coach Jim Boswell said. “We have a good tennis core of teachers and instruc-tors.”

That leads to success.

Since the 1972 inception of the Illinois High School Association’s girls tennis tournament, Intercity programs have won 27 out of a possible 35 sectional titles. Bloomington has won the most with 19 sectional crowns.

The Purple Raiders also have one individual state champion (Mariel Verban in 1995) and a doubles championship (Court-ney Allen and Jill Joslin in 1982).

“Strong. It always is,” said Central Catholic coach Joe Rondone, sizing up the Inter-city talent level. “There are always strong players coming out of these programs.”

Over the past three seasons, Intercity programs have claimed the top three spots in the sectional, while in 2005 five of the top six spots were occu-pied by the Intercity.

“You’ve got some kids that had some success before,” Bloomington coach Ed Rozboril said. “They want to build on it and that’s encouraging.”

Success for individuals comes from a dedication to the sport before high school.

“I think with tennis, it takes a lot more practice before they get to high school,” said first-year University High coach Samantha Petinga. “I think it takes a lot more effort on the individual side to become an outstanding player in high school.”

The constant talent finding its way to the Intercity programs has the coaches excited.

“I think it’s starting to get better and better,” Normal West coach Phil Nevels said. “These next couple years we’re going to see some talented players in the intercity.”

Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports.

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Reader comments on this story - 2 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Well Said... wrote on Aug 27, 2007 12:04 PM:

" Well said...let's see if the Pantagraph TAKES NOTICE!!! "

Tennis fan wrote on Aug 27, 2007 8:58 AM:

" When you mention that girls' tennis goes unnoticed there is no larger culprit than this paper. In the next 45 days there will be 3 local tournaments with 16 teams from all over the state and conference. These will go by completely unnoticed by the Pantagraph. Today's USA Today has 4 pages devoted to tennis, take a hint. "

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