Morgan Hill – In only its second year in existence, the Sobrato
High School girls tennis team hopes to improve from a winless 2006
season.
Morgan Hill – In only its second year in existence, the Sobrato High School girls tennis team hopes to improve from a winless 2006 season.
While the Bulldogs did send two players to the Blossom Valley Athletic League Tournament for their individual league performances, the team as a whole did not win a match all last season.
With five steady swinging freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and two seniors, the nine member girls squad is confident they will do much better in 2007.
“I’m most looking forward to winning some team matches this year,” senior team captain Sara Morimoto, 17, said. “We have a great team with more consistent players, so we should go pretty far this year.”
Morimoto went to the BVAL tournament last season as a ninth seed, and made it to the semifinals.
Leading up to the BVAL tourney, Morimoto only lost two matches all season.
“I want to get beyond the semis, I want to get to the finals,” Morimoto said.
During her sophomore year, thanks to Title IX, a law passed in 1973 which guarantees female athletes get the same access to prep sports opportunities as male athletes, Morimoto played with the Sobrato boys tennis team because there was no girls team.
Last season, as a junior, she led the Sobrato girls in their first official season for three games without a coach, until boys coach Randy Barbaglia stepped in to fill the void.
Going into his first full season as the girls coach, Barbaglia is also going into his third year as the Sobrato boys coach, and third year as the Gilroy High School girls tennis coach.
“The season looks bright, but I’m an eternal optimist” he said. “Just the fact that we have a team and we’re out here playing tennis is winning in my book.”
Barbaglia, a retired real estate broker, looks forward to watching his young players develop, and expects freshman Alexa Watanabe to push Morimoto. “They will be my No. 1 and No. 2 players,” Barbaglia said.
While Morimoto has three and a half years of tennis experience, Watanabe, 14, comes to Sobrato from Britton Middle School with four years of tennis experience under her belt.
“I think high school tennis will be a good experience,” Watanabe said. “Being able to play all the different teams will definitely help me get better.”
Sobrato will have a strong team this year because everyone practices and plays extremely hard, Watanabe said.
“What I like about coach (Barbaglia) is that he lets us play at our own pace,” she said. “We are all improving because he lets us practice what we need to work on.”
With only nine players though, Barbaglia will have to continue to push his players to compete hard in practice.
Barbaglia would like to have at least 14 players on the roster before the teams season opener against Del Mar at 3:15pm on Tuesday at Del Mar High School, but said his team will be prepared none the less.
