The Becker Bulldog boys tennis team is hoping to ride the wave of a program that continues to show prodigious improvement each and every year under the helm of Head Coach Hokan Bengtson.
The tennis team will look to the leadership of some key players including Captains Dawson Brown and Austin Hill as well as seniors Joe Gudim, Josh Duke, Josiah Borst and juniors Jackson Lefebve, Isaac Popp, Brody Hed, Andrew Schneider, Allen Volk and Travis Fischer.
Bengtson will have Brett Hultgren, Nate Bucher and Rob Olson as his assistants and the student manager is Ashley Souba.
Last year, Bengtson’s team finished the Granite Ridge Conference with a 5-1 record and an 18-3 overall record.
From 1997 to 2005 — when the team was not associated with a conference — the boys had a combined record of 32-68 (two years unaccounted for). Since 2006, when the team joined the Mississippi 8 Conference, the team has a 122-101 record. In just the last five years, the boys tennis team has lost just one match in the conference to 30 wins.
This year, Bengtson and his coaches will be leading 12 varsity, 12 junior varsity and 12 to 15 junior high boys in tennis.
“We have a veteran group this season with five seniors,” said Bengtson. “We also have some really promising young players coming up through the program.”
Bengtson says this particular group of athletes has put in a lot of time preparing for the season.
“In fact, more time than any group I have coached up to this point,” he said. “They played USTA junior team tennis last summer and almost all of them played in at least one tournament in the offseason.”
This year will be Bengtson’s 14th season as head coach.
“I really love the challenge of working with young men and getting them to push themselves farther than they thought they we capable of going,” he said. “I also count it as a privilege to teach and coach in a great system like Becker has. Our tennis facility is as good as any high school in Minnesota.
Last year, the team got physically fit several times when they were called upon to shovel mounds of snow off the courts just to get a few outdoor practices in before the season began. This year, the weather has been polar opposite.
“The spring weather has been awesome,” said Bengtson. “We were able to have captains practice outside for the first time in over five years.”
Bengtson said his guys have been hitting for weeks already.
“My captains (Brown and Hill) have done an excellent job leading and the season is just beginning.”
Brown currently is the tennis team’s record holder for most wins (112), best career winning percentage (.835) and the longest winning streak (20 in 2011). He also has been named the team’s most valuable player four times.
“This is probably the best our team has gotten ready for the season in all the years I’ve been here,” said Brown. “We had off-season tennis and spent some Sunday afternoons playing and we really dedicated ourselves to be better prepared.”
Brown knows he and Hill will be looked upon to be the team leaders and show an example to the younger players and he appreciates the challenge.
“As a whole senior class, we try and lead by example,” he said. “In footwork drills and stuff like that, we need to be the ones leading it and working the hardest out there.”
Hultgren — who is now one of Bengtson’s assistant coaches and a Becker HS graduate from 2013 — has the third highest most career wins with 90, is second in career percentage in wins with an .833 record, has the most single season wins in school history with 27, has a .900 best single season winning percentage (good for third all-time) and is second in matches played in a career with 108.
The team consists of Adam Stellmach, Allen Volk, Andrew Schneider, Austin Hill, Bo Scherbing, Branden Roemer, Brody Hed, Caleb Quernemoen, Carter Garding, CJ Howard, Dawson Brown, Isaac Popp, Jackson Lefebve, Joe Gudim, John Crocker, Jordan Bonsante, Josh Duke, Josiah Borst, Logan Steffen, Noah Klinker, Travis Fischer, Tyler Lindquist and Tyler Schmidt.
The team’s first match of the year is Monday at home against Monticello at 4 p.m.
