WORTON — Kent County High School has an experienced boys tennis team, which is reflected in its 2-1 start.
Leading the way is two-time team MVP Sebastien Cousineau, who made program history last year when he became the first player to reach a final in the state tournament.
Cousineau is unbeaten in singles and 2-1 in doubles with classmate Bjorn Birkmire.
As a team, Kent County has beaten Cambridge, 6-1, and Colonel Richardson, 7-0.
The loss is to defending North Bayside Conference and Class 1A East Region I champion St. Michaels, 6-1. KCHS averted a shutout thanks to Cousineau’s win at No. 1 singles.
Kent County returns Birkmire, Cousineau, Chris Gonzales, Ben Hinton, Owen Hyland, Eamon Lindsay and Jayden Miller from last year’s team that was runner-up to St. Michaels in the region tournament.
Also back is head coach Tyray Johnson.
The first-year players are Aleksandre Kukhianidze, Lawrence Peach, Damien Sanchez and Kristopher Stroup.
Gonzales, Kukhianidze and Peach are seniors. Everyone else is a junior.
To date, the lineup has been consistently heavy on veteran players — Cousineau, Birkmire, Gonzales and Miller at Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 singles, respectively, and duos of Cousineau-Birkmire, Gonzales-Miller and Hinton-Lindsay.
Cousineau is the front-runner to repeat as region singles champ.
Coach Johnson has been impressed with the development of Birkmire, who is a co-captain with Cousineau.
“Bjorn has stepped up this season and really improved,” Johnson said. “He has embraced his new leadership role and has been doing such a good job with our group.”
Even though this is spring break for Kent County Public Schools, there is no pause in the action for KCHS athletes. The tennis players have three matches this week, including Wednesday, April 8 at home against Cambridge and Friday at Queen Anne’s. Both matches begin at 4 p.m.
