By Kent Dolezal
by Kent Dolezal
The Havre Daily News
Monday, May 17
The Havre High tennis teams enter the final week of their regular season when they travel to Lewistown for the Fergus Invitational.
The Blue Pony boys team has been very successful this season and will face Glendive and Lewistown. Havre coach Sam Dierman said that Glendive is a traditional strong program, both boys and girls. Lewistown will have a strong boys team, he said. The Blue Ponies met Fergus once this year, but that was not its complete lineup. Glendive has not played the Ponies.
They have an excellent coach that has been there for 26, 27 years, Dierman said about Glendives strength. Hes won 16, 17 state championships. He does an excellent job.
The Havre girls will play Anaconda, Livingston and Lewistown. All three of those matches are critical for the seeding in the upcoming Central A divisional.
The tourney will be conducted using eight-point pro sets with no advantages. Dierman said that the Blue Ponies are better in full-match situations, because the team conditions for the longer format.
I know for a fact that were in better shape than any other team in the state, he said. When we play full matches were pretty good. Sometimes well lose the first set, but we will come back. We built for that.
The weather this past week has posed practice problems for the Blue Ponies. The teams got a good indoor workout in Tuesday, he said. Wednesday the Blue Ponies finalized their line up heading into the post season.
Dierman feels good about the Blue Ponies heading into the year-end tournaments. We have had a lot of improvement, he said. he kids are coming along, and they are right where I want them to be now.
Havre has seven boys and seven girls with postseason experience, a distinct advantage of the Blue Ponies. When you have kids that have been there before, they are more focused. They dont let little things get to them. It really helps out.
Miles City, another strong program in Class A tennis, will also be at the tourney. The Blue Ponies will not play the Cowboys, but Dierman said at least he will get to see what they will bring to table at the state tournament.
