Belleville East looking to rebuild during ‘16 tennis season

With the exception of perennial state power Edwardsville, few schools outside suburban Chicago have enjoyed as much success on the tennis courts as Belleville East has in recent years.

Led by the youthful enthusiasm of veteran coach Dan Skaer, the Lancers have won four consecutive sectional crowns and placed in the top 12 at the IHSA State Tennis Tournament in each of the past three years. In addition, in each of the past four years, East has advanced all six of its allowed players — two doubles combinations and two singles players — to the state finals.

Extending any of those streaks could be a difficult chore for the Lancers in ‘16. Of the Lancers top 10 players from last season, nine have either graduated or are no longer with the program.

“It’s a different atmosphere around here this year. In the past four or five years, we’ve had the luxury of having a very deep squad and when we would graduate a few of them each year, we would have players on the junior varsity who were playing at a high level who were ready to step in,’’ Skaer said. “This year we don’t have the depth or experience.

“While I think our top three players should be able to compete with any top three players on any other team, I’m spending a lot more time with the next six or seven players trying to get them ready to be able to compete as varsity players.’’

Skaer doesn’t have much time to get his team ready. The Lancers open their season on Saturday at the Triad Invitational.

The big three

For the Lancers to be able to compete with what looks to be a talent-rich Southwestern Conference with Edwardsville, O’Fallon and Belleville West all having strong programs, they must get good efforts on a nightly basis from their top three players — sophomore Christian Cowulich, freshman Max Skaer and senior Austin Klug.

Cowulich played at the bottom of the Lancers lineup a year ago, but after a summer of tournaments and lessons, the much-improved East player has zoomed to the top of the lineup.

“Being a freshman last year on a team with a lot of seniors, I think Christian may have been a little intimidated at times. But that’s only natural,’’ Skaer said.”But to his credit, he has really worked on his game and has improved more in one year more then any player I’ve been around for a while. His mental and physical games are both much better.’’

Skaer’s son Max Skaer will start the season as the Lancers No. 2 player. Much heralded after steadily moving up the local rankings, Max Skaer is the third and youngest of the Skaer brothers to play at East, following in the footsteps of both Ty and Aaron Skaer, both of who played varsity tennis for four years.

“As far as being the most advanced at this age its Max,’’ Dan Skaer said. “He’s been playing tournament tennis for several years now and while he’s got to get bigger and stronger, the experience he has through playing at a high level has him to the point where his skills are very solid.’’

Klug, who played at the bottom of the lineup last year, was on the state tournament roster and he won two matches in his first state tournament appearance.

The rest of the Lancers

Dan Skaer has seven other players he hopes will also be competitive this season. Among the players vying for starting spots are senior Josh Thomas, juniors Ethan Pickard, Ryan Halton, Zach Buescher and Dylan Friedman along with sophomores Carter Baldus and Cameron Cagas.

Dean Criddle: 618-239-2661, @CriddleDean

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 8:56 PM with the headline "Belleville East looking to rebuild during ‘16 tennis season."