Prep spring sports getting back in the swing of things

Players from Dothan and Northside Methodist dueled at the facility, the first high school match in the area since COVID-19 shut down the sport – and all prep sports – during the middle of last season.

Tennis and soccer are the first two AHSAA sports back in action this spring with tennis teams eligible to have first matches last Thursday, Jan. 28. Soccer opened up Thursday night. Baseball, softball and golf have opening competitions next Thursday, Feb. 11.

Thursday’s match at Wiregrass Park was the second for the Dothan girls and boys teams, who played at Bainbridge, Ga., on Tuesday and was also the second for the NMA girls, who played at Charles Henderson last Thursday. It was the first for the Knights’ boys team.

Players with both schools were grateful for the opportunity to play again after the coronavirus shut down high school athletics last spring in mid-March and never resumed the rest of the season. Now 11 months later, the virus is still present and a potential problem, but the AHSAA has cautiously cleared spring sports to play.

“For me, it makes me feel a lot more grateful to play any match,” Dothan girls senior Savannah Nunez said. “I get to play someone and it doesn’t matter if it is counting (for section) or not, I am going to give it my all to it because we don’t know if our season is going get cut or canceled again. To be able to do this is great and I am grateful.”

Dothan junior Mattie Dodson had a similar feeling.

“It does make you think about every game as your last game because you don’t know now,” Dodson said. “It is not just injuries now (that end a season). You could always get quarantine or shut down. I learned not to take it for granted.”

Dodson said the lack of finishing last season created a time warp sensation to her.

“It makes you realize how short your high school career really is,” Dodson said. “I don’t feel like I finished 10th grade and I am halfway through 11th now.”

Northside Methodist senior boys player Spencer Harris was also glad to be playing.

“It feels pretty good,” Harris said. “I wasn’t really expecting it. I thought corona would be bad and I didn’t think we would get to play. We are all glad to be here.”

In addition to being grateful, the players were excited to be playing competitive tennis again.

“It is good to get back on and playing again,” Northside Methodist senior boys player Matthew Mugler said. “It is fun.”

Like every other sport, protocols to combat COVID-19 were in place. Masks are required around the tennis facilities, though players could take them off once they started playing. The traditional post-match handshakes are now taps of rackets and picking up tennis balls, especially those coming from another court, are discouraged with use of rackets preferred to return the balls.

“It is a little different, but after a while I think we will get used to it,” Mugler said.

Logan Slaick, another Northside Methodist senior, said other than the few protocols, Thursday’s match seemed like a typical season-opener.

“Not too much different,” Slaick said. “Just ready to get back at it.”

All the players expressed disappointment at how last spring ended with COVID shutting down athletics quickly after it made headlines in mid-March.

“It was pretty disappointing,” Slaick said. “It was kind of abrupt. It was really unexpected. It was out of nowhere.”

Harris added, “I was feeling disappointed because that was when I was just getting a little bit better and it was cut short. Nobody was a big fan of it.”

The Dothan girls tennis players had another reason to be disappointed. Last year’s senior-oriented team – the first at Dothan after the consolidation of Dothan and Northview – was 7-1 at the halfway point of the season when it came to a halt.

“I was pretty bummed because we had a pretty good chance at going to state and not being able to do it, especially in the first year the school was combined, was disappointing,” Nunez said. “That would have been nice (to make state in the first year).”

Dodson added, “I was really sad because a lot of our players were seniors. As a senior, I know that would break my heart. Some of them had a good chance of going far to sectionals and state. I felt bad for them.”

While Thursday’s match was the first since last year’s shutdown, it was also a historic one for the Northside Methodist boys team. It was the Knights’ first as a member of the Alabama High School Athletic Association after spending years in the Alabama Independent Schools Association.

“It feels different because we were in AISA (last year) and our matches were far away,” Harris said. “We are playing local teams now and it is pretty cool to get play Dothan, considering how big of a school (Class 7A) they are and how small (Class 3A) we are.”

In fact, the match was the first in the city in two years for the private school in Dothan, which had played all road matches last year before the shutdown.

Results

Girls

Dothan 9, Northside Methodist 0

Singles

No. 1 Mattie Dodson (DHS) def. Mary Helms (NMA) 10-1

No. 2 Megan Duffy (DHS) def. Maddie Lawrence (NMA) 10-3

No. 3 Savannah Nunez (DHS) def. Isabella Wright (NMA) 10-0

No. 4 Riley Benton (DHS) def. Briley Cunningham (NMA) 10-1

No. 5 Shelby Branch (DHS) def. Lillian Slaick (NMA) 10-3

No. 6 Ellie Smith (DHS) def. Jordan Kent (NMA) 10-6

Exhibition: Jules Singley (DHS) def. Abigail Cosby (NMA) 10-2

Exhibition: Zoe Edenfield (DHS) def. Meagan Chandler (NMA) 10-2

Exhibition: Olivia Burgess (DHS) def. Morgan Kelly (NMA) 10-1

Doubles

No. 1 Dodson/Duffy (DHS) def. Helms/Lawrence (NMA) 10-3

No. 2 Nunez/Benton (DHS) def. Cunningham/Slaick (NMA) 10-5

No. 3 Branch/Smith (DHS) def. Wright/Kent (NMA) 10-1

Boys

Dothan 6, Northside Methodist 3

Singles

No. 1 Ethan Peel (DHS) def. Bryce Lawrence (NMA) 10-4

No. 2 Fitzpatrick Carter (NMA) def. James Howell (DHS) 10-8

No. 3 Fred Smith (DHS) def. Daniel Brown (NMA) 10-10 (7-3)

No. 4 Landon Dodson (NMA) def. Colin Groover (DHS) 10-5

No. 5 Max Sinquefield (DHS) def. Logan Slaick (NMA) 10-8

No. 6 Gary Meredeth (DHS) def. Zachary Swartzman (NMA) 10-6

Doubles

No. 1 Peel/Howell (DHS) def. Lawrence/Carter (NMA) 10-3

No. 2 Brown/Dodson (NMA) def. Smith/Sinquefield (DHS) 10-3

No. 3 Groover/Meredeth (DHS) def. Mugler/Alex Casten (NMA) 10-5