Cedar Rapids Kennedy returns to state team tennis

The Cedar Rapids Kennedy boys tennis team is no stranger to the state team tennis tournament in recent years.

The Cougars have reach the state team competition each of the last three years, but it's the way they made it three straight appearances is the impressive part.

Kennedy has experienced a change in coaches, playing without two of its best players from last year and gruelling substate battle against a team that had already beat the Cougars just to reach Tuesday's Iowa High School Athletic Association Class 2A state team tennis tournament at Waveland Tennis Courts in Des Moines. The Cougars face top-seed West Des Moines Valley in the semifinal at 8:30 a.m.

It has taken a complete team effort for the Cougars to make it this far into the season.

“Our team has just kept improving,” senior Jeff Damisch said. “We have leadership throughout.”

Kennedy posted a 12-3 record before this event, despite losing last year's top player, Joey White, to early graduation and enrollment at the University of Iowa, and the loss of another top player.

The team manage to maintain its success that claimed a third-place state finish at last year's state meet and a 2008 state championship.

“This is not the team people expected based on what could have been back,” said first-year Kennedy head coach Craig Bova, who took over for former coach Jim Loomis. “I looke at what this team did without that.”

The Cougars have shown their resolve, especially in the substate final against Linn-Mar, which had beaten them earlier in the season to snap their 23-match Mississippi Valley Conference win streak.

They outlasted the Lions, receiving a big third-set tiebreaker win from Ethan Garscho and Nolan Nietert to clinch the substate championship, 5-4, after splitting six singles matches and the first two doubles. Damisch and Riley Galbraith, the team's No. 2 singles player who continued to play through a knee injury, also scored an important doubles win, coming back from a set down to beat state placewinners Tyler McCann and Mitch Anderson.

Bova is in his 19th season as a boys tennis coach, leading Carroll Kuemper for four years and Marshalltown for 14. He returned to the game after helping coach girls tennis at Kennedy, and has made an impact.

“Coach Bova's experience has helped a lot,” said Damisch, who is hopeful to play Tuesday after an elbow injury forced him to default his final state singles match Saturday. “He's been coaching for awhile so he knows what he's talking about. If you listen to that you feel like we can win the close meets that maybe we couldn't otherwise.”

Bova was just as complimentary of Damisch, who was thrust into the leadership role this year. Damisch's ability to take over the No. 1 position and his knowledge of competition and the Kennedy lineup was an asset.

“That helped me as a coach to formulate the rest of the team for the year,” Bova said. “He knew what we had coming up, so he helped me in that way. Not only did he know the opposition, but he knew the team composition, too.

“That's been part of our success in the fact that the insights he gives me of the kids helped us be a better team.”

Kennedy has met most of the challenges they've faced this season, and a stiff test awaits in the Tigers. The Cougars are hungry to get back on top of 2A.

“I want to win another team state title,” Damisch said. “After winning two years ago and coming close last year but not winning it, I feel like I really want to win another one.”

Second seed Bettendorf, led by state doubles champions Kyle Johnson and David DeSimone, takes on No. 3 seed Ames. Semifinal winners play in the title match at about 2 p.m. The third-place match is also set for 2 p.m.