4th Region Boys Tennis Preview
By Perry Swack
Storylines abound as the 4th Region singles and doubles tennis championships begin this week in Bowling Green. The boys’ singles and doubles events will be held at Buchanon Park, while the girls’ events will be at nearby South Warren High School. The tournaments will begin on Friday, May 17 at 9:30am. It will continue on Saturday, May 18 before the semifinals on 5/20 and finals on 5/21 complete the yearly championship.
After winning the girls’ singles, boys’ doubles, and team title in 2023, Greenwood is hungry for another deep run in 2024. “We set the goal every year to win the region and go to state,” said Gator coach Tim Dethridge. “We want to enjoy the state experience but we are also on business. “That is the standard the previous players have set and that is the standard the younger players are held to.” One player who GHS has had to replace is Dylan Dethridge, the Kentucky Mr. Tennis recipient last season. “(It) is a big challenge to try and fill Dylan’s shoes,” said the elder Dethridge. “ There has never been a player to come through this program since I have been the coach that has loved the sport and worked as hard as Dylan.” The younger Dethridge and Gary Zheng were state finalists in the boys’ doubles last season.
“We are in a rebuilding year this year. We lost 4 of 6 starters from the boys team last year and 3 of the 6 starters from the girls team. However, it makes it fun, because these guys and gals are hungry and want to enjoy the ride they watched the 2023 team enjoy.” Although the Gators have had to replace an abundance of talent from their ‘23 squad, they have had a great bit of success on the court in ‘24. In fact, Greenwood is seeded first in both singles and doubles. The aforementioned Zheng is seeded first in the boys’ singles after competing in the last three doubles tournaments. He was a region champion in ‘22 and ‘23, while finishing as a finalist in ‘21. Zheng will try to become the sixth Gator in seven seasons to win the region boys’ singles event.
Bowling Green’s Houston St. John will be seeded second overall in the singles. He finished as region runner-up a season ago and will be looking to qualify for the state event again in ‘24. The players seeded third and fourth competed in doubles last season but will now try their hand at singles. Greenwood’s Tyler Sherrod and South Warren’s Jackson Donovan round out the top four in the boys’ singles. The semifinalists of each event qualify for the state tournament.
On the boys’ doubles side, Greenwood’s doubles pairing of Wyatt Packard and Grant Dunn are seeded first overall, as the Gators have won the last four region titles in boys doubles. South Warren’s Antonio Noble and Salem Harris are seeded second. With Jackson Donovan moving to the singles event, Noble returns to the doubles after reaching the Round of 16 at the state tournament in ‘23. “We returned all of our state qualifiers from last year and have some really talented younger players as well,” Spartan head coach Chad Young said. “We’ve been fortunate to get some of our players seeded at the state tournament which is key to advancing. It’s one of the reasons we travel so much and play the quality of opponents that we do.”
South’s #2 doubles team of Christian Lawyer and Braden Coley are seeded fifth and receive one of the six first-round byes. After finishing runners-up in each of the last two boys’ doubles region events, SW will be looking to break into the winner’s circle. Metcalfe County’s Colton Huffman and Cabot Boling are seeded third, and Glasgow’s Max Hughes and Nick Bower are fourth. Greenwood rounds out the final pairing receiving a first-round bye with Brayden Phillips and Barrett Zies.
Bowling Green’s doubles pairing of Connor Edds and Owen Hunley were semifinalists in ‘23 and went on to reach the Round of 32 at state. Hunley graduated but Edds returns and will pair with Ub Han as the #7 seed, while Blake Hunley and Dawson Hu received the eighth and final seeded group of the boys doubles.
