Colony's first-year tennis program produces state qualifiers

PALMER — Three years ago, tennis was merely an idea at Colony High School.

Today, Colony High is not only home to a varsity program, but also athletes who have qualified for the ASAA/First National Bank State Tennis Championships.

Colony High’s Peyton Johnstone, Michael Crawford, Owen Ballos, Michael Connor and Alex Tenditnyk each qualified for the state tournament during the first Region III Championships in Kodiak last week. Palmer High School’s John Burton, Palmer’s lone tennis player, also qualified for state.

“We just wanted the kids to be competitive. We really had no idea (what to expect),” Colony coach Jane Bulovsky said Monday afternoon.

It was the first official meet for the Knights, a first-year sanctioned program that started as a club two years ago. It was also the first home meet for Kodiak, which had boasted Region III’s only tennis program for the last nine years. Colony is also the first Valley school to feature a tennis program. Typically, prep tennis in Alaska has been reserved for schools in the largest communities, such as Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.

Now Colony is on that list, sporting a roster with a promising number of athletes.

Bulovsky said it was hard for the Colony coaches to gauge what to expect as the team prepared for actual competition.

“We have kids who had never held a racket in their life. We have kids who have been in the club two to three years,” Bulovsky said. “We have the whole gamut.”

Bulovsky said before the trip to Kodiak, her athletes didn’t have much experience outside of practice. The Knights scrimmaged Eagle River, but that was cut short due to weather. Colony was welcomed to an invitational in Anchorage, but that meet was also rained out. Earlier this year, Bulovsky said Kodiak offered to host a region meet if the Knights could make the trip.

Bulovsky said there’s a growing buzz about tennis around Colony High, and she hopes the success of her current athletes will help boost participation. The tennis team includes athletes from other Colony sports, such as wrestling and soccer, and Bulovsky said she hopes to continue to lure athletes from other sports to her tennis team. Bulovsky said skills needed on the tennis court — such as eye-hand coordination and lateral movement — easily translate to other sports.

Bulovsky and her fellow coaches have faced obstacles as the work to build the program. As the Knights attract athletes, the coaches work to find places for their players to practices. Bulovsky said there are currently about three outdoor tennis facilities, for her team to use, but no indoor facilities. The Knights usually practice about 90 minutes per day, off campus. There are two tennis courts on the Colony High campus.

“They’re totally dilapidated,” Bulovsky said.

Bulovsky said new principal Justin Ainsworth has expressed an interest in helping see that the courts are redone to help the Colony tennis program grow. Bulovsky said they’ve started the process by filing necessary paperwork, and seeking grants through organizations such as the United States Tennis Association and Mat-Su Health Foundation.

“It’d be really huge. We could run dual practices at the same time,” Bulovsky said of courts at CHS.

Bulovsky, a certified coach with the Professional Tennis Registry, is also involved with local youth and adult tennis programs, and has seen interest in the sport continually grow throughout the Valley. With the success of Burton at Palmer High, Bulovsky said she hopes Palmer will one day have a program. Bulovsky said interest has also been expressed at Wasilla High.

Burton and the group of Knights will compete in the state meet at the Alaska Club East in Anchorage Oct. 9-10.

Each qualifier needed to win their event in the Region III Championships to advance to state. Johnstone advanced with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Kodiak’s Kaori Kageyama in the girls’ singles. Burton defeated Kodiak’s Fisher Gandel 10-8 in the final round of the boys’ singles. Crawford and Ballos combined to beat Kodiak’s Vincent Fernandez and Kyle Mauer 6-4, 6-1 in the boys’ doubles. Connor and Tenditnyk teamed to beat Kodiak’s J.P. Albano and Alisha Santamaria 6-1, 7-5 in the mixed doubles.

Bulovsky said the Knights will have a few chances to hit the court before the state meet. Colony is scheduled to scrimmage Bartlett in Anchorage. The Knights will also travel north to face Lathrop.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.