And the No. 2 singles spot is….
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
If I thought slowpitch softball was tough, it paled in comparison to my picks for the boys and girls all-city tennis teams.
Let’s start with the obvious: the entire McGuinness girls team? All six?
Well, here’s my process. Let’s begin with doubles. Mia Lancaster and Whitney Ritchie would easily make an All-State team, yet alone an All-City. Their accolades in national tournaments speak for themselves. You add in victories against the 4A and 5A champs, Tulsa Kelley and Jenks, well, it’s a no-brainer. That was the easiest selection.
To the No. 2 doubles spot. Again, nobody beat Emily Conrad and Ashleigh Chiaf for the Irish. Again, they beat the 5A champs, Jenks. And this is based on TEAM. Individually, I think both Chiaf and Conrad would admit they’re not up to snuff…yet. But this based on a doubles team and without solid competition from the rest of the classes, winners again.
Peta Maree Lancaster was another obvious choice. She unseats the player of the year for the No. 1 spot. She doesn’t lose a match. She beats the 4A and 5A champs, Andrea Lewis of Tulsa Kelley and Cassie Carver of Putnam North. She beats arguably the next best singles player, Julie Labarthe of Heritage Hall, in straight sets both times they play. Chalk it up, and it’s another easy McGuinness choice.
But then we come to the No. 2 singles, uh oh. This was the toughest choice I’ve made in the three postseason teams I’ve done. In one corner, McGuinness junior Katelyn Connelly vs. Labarthe.
This is about as neck-and-neck as you can get. I seriously thought about copping out and naming both of them, but yeah, there’s not three singles spots (which I have found out the hard way).
For this one, I consulted six different coaches (all will remain anonymous). The final tally was Connelly 4, Labarthe 2. It was a great contest with everyone making different but still valid points for both girls.
In the end, I looked at it like this. Did Connelly do anything to deserve dropping from the first team? This was very much akin to James Watson of Stringtown for boys basketball. Donte’ Foster of Guthrie was in Labarthe’s role. And that was the young spoiler trying to disrupt the proven favorite.
But like Watson, Connelly did nothing to fall. She went undefeated and defeated Nicole Holsted of Heritage Hall in the finals. She also beat the 4A and 5A champs, Abby Lewis of Tulsa Kelley and Callie Huey of Jenks.
Connelly couldn’t do anything more than what she did.
The same could be said for Labarthe. I mean, wow, what pressure was she under trying to replace Holsted, a proven commodity for Dick Villaflor? Labarthe did great, only falling to Lancaster and Andrea Lewis and taking both matches against Carver.
A blog mention probably isn’t much consolation to Labarthe, but she’s got two years to make this writer eat his words. I hope she does. I enjoy very much watching her play. And maybe Connelly will move back to No. 1, and the two can duke it out once and for all for the All-City title.
That was really the biggest problem. With Nos. 1 and 2 not playing each other, it was a tough comparison. Labarthe beat Connelly in the summer but coaches said if they had to choose, it’s Connelly…by a nose. And that’s where I stand…by a nose. What do you think?
If not for the doubles quandary, the team would have been: Lancaster and Ritchie, Lancaster, Connelly, Labarthe and Carver. But it’s two singles and two doubles and singles reigned supreme this year for the girls.
It was the opposite for the boys where doubles was messing me up. Let’s see, duh, Caleb Villaflor and Justin Wise. And Edmond Memorial’s Zach White and Duncan Fugitt were easy picks.
That left, wow, great teams out in the cold. You know, when a team like Deer Creek’s David Sheetz and Jordan Phillips is left out, it’s a pretty good team. The duo was 22-2 and lost in two tough sets to Tulsa Kelley in the finals. Sheetz made an easy transition from singles to doubles while Phillips is just a sophomore and will be back again. Shawnee’s doubles teams have proven themselves. Norman North had a couple of top-notch doubles teams.
The process wasn‘t easy, but congratulations to all those who made it in one way or another. It was a great year, can’t wait to do it again.
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