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Southampton senior captains Yostin Sandoval Vasquez, left, and Charlie Davis. Missing was fellow senior captain Yassine Boukaissi. DREW BUDD
The Southampton boys tennis team was a senior-laden group last season that saw eight players graduate in June, which can be devastating to a tennis team when it starts seven players in a lineup to begin with. But thankfully, the Mariners do have some returning seniors this season who will help lead what is an inexperienced team at the varsity level.
Returning seniors, who are also tri-captains of the team this season, include Yassine Boukaissi, Charlie Davis and Yostin Sandoval Vasquez. Lachlan Comonte is also a senior, but is new to the team after transferring in from a private school in the Berkshires. Southampton head coach Richard “Juni” Wingfield likes Comonte’s athletic ability and thinks he’ll slide somewhere into the singles lineup. He also thinks returning junior Lucas Bencardino could also play some singles as well.
Joining the team from junior varsity are Jax Gassener, Beckham LaRose, Kirill Seus, Erion Ruhani, and Dylan Grigio. All are up from the junior varsity and will look to fill in where they’re needed. One thing Wingfield stresses each season is that the majority, if not all, of his players split their matches between singles and doubles; it’s a requirement at the division tournament that a player played at least 50 percent of their matches in singles or doubles to be able to play there at divisions.
A “luxury,” as Wingfield put it, has been the generosity of Scott Johnson and rest of the staff at SYS who have allowed the team to use some of its indoor courts, not only in the offseason, but in the evenings as well. The team was going to get some challenge matches in Monday evening after practice, something Wingfield really appreciated.
“Hats off to SYS and Future Stars program there. They and the school have really made an important effort to make the facility available to both the boys and girls.”
Southampton will compete in Division IV this season, which is basically every school east of William Floyd Parkway. The Mariners opened the season with a pair of nonleague matches, first on Wednesday at Rocky Point and then at home the next day, Thursday, March 23, against Comsewogue at 4 p.m. They open the division schedule at East Hampton this Tuesday, March 28, at 4 p.m.
“I’m looking forward to getting out there and seeing some continued growth,” Wingfield said. “We had some players who spent some time in the winter at SYS and that should help them. If we can steal a point at third and fourth singles, and then with any one of the doubles teams, then, hey, we’re in a fight. And this team is so even across the board in terms of ability, really any one of them can play at any position. We may not be able to beat the top kids at Ross, or East Hampton or Westhampton, but we may be able to beat their third or fourth singles kids and one of their doubles teams. It’s a great group of kids and we’ll see what we get out of it.”
