MEGAN BADGER / WIRE PHOTO
By Mike Gibson
For the Wire
Going through a tennis season in the Suburban One League National Conference is a little like running a gauntlet.
No one has to tell Bensalem boys’ head coach James Humes that.
He already knows.
The Owls (3–7 overall, 0–6 league) were scheduled to complete their season on April 29 against visiting Quakertown, but that match was rained out.
That was unfortunate because Quakertown, winless in the weaker Contintental Conference, represented another opportunity to Bensalem for a win. That match was not rescheduled.
As a result, the Owls finished the season with wins against Abraham Lincoln of Philadelphia, Lansdale Catholic and Norristown and winless during the regular Suburban One League National Conference season.
Improvement was measurable at times, including a 5–2 loss to Neshaminy that was closer than the score indicated, but the lack of wins can take a toll at times.
Still, the kids worked hard and Humes appreciates the effort.
“We’re in a tough league,” he said. “If we were in a different league, we would have had a better record.”
Humes wants it known that Mike Pinto, for instance, had a terrific season and played well in his doubles matches.
“He showed a lot of improvement and, as a coach, you take a lot of satisfaction out of things like that,” he said.
The Owls carried 23 players on the varsity this year and Humes expects that many next season. He eventually hopes that a middle school program can be started up within the school district to feed the high school.
“We have a team composed mostly of seniors,” he said. “If we had a better middle school team that would definitely improve the program.”
Schools like Council Rock North, Humes noted, have that.
“They have more of a country club atmosphere or influence and we get a lot of home-schooled players,” he said. “Also, we have some private schools in our area and they may take some of the players that otherwise would have gone here.”
Not helping, though, was the unseasonably cold weather.
“We’re allowed to have our first practice on March 1 and that is too cold, in my opinion,” he said. “All of our matches were really cold and windy and damp.”
Last year, Bensalem’s №1 player, David Sanchez, is now playing on a club level at Penn State.
Seniors who will be missed from this year’s team include Nauman Javed (first singles) and Prit Patel, who played second singles.
Parshad Pandya was Pinto’s first doubles’ partner and he will be departing as well.
One way of building the morale this year was the realistic scheduling outside the conference.
“I go out and schedule on my own,” Humes said. “We played (Father) Judge, but unfortunately matches against (Archbishop Wood) and (George) Washington got rained out.
“We try to schedule as many of the schools close by as possible. Those schools are pretty much on our level.”
The other ones in the same league haven’t been, but Humes hopes that might change in the future.
