Coral Springs Charter Tennis Team.
By: Matt Rothman
With a team averaging just 14 years old, Coral Springs Charter had their most successful season in school history winning a district championship for a second straight year as well as their first-ever match in states.
One of those players is Juhnyee See. At 13, she plays both number one singles and number one doubles with her partner Madeleine Barbanes and was a divisional and regional champion in both. They also won First Team All-County in doubles.
“Nobody expects Charter to win because we never won a title that big, so for us to get out and win that first round of states is really important,” said Barbanes. “We have fun on the court and don’t beat ourselves too much up if we lose because nobody expects us to win but us.”
Both See, and Barbanes won their state matches in third set tiebreakers, and doubles match as well 7-6(2) 6-2 in route to a 4-3 win over Bishop Moore Catholic High School at Red Bug Lake Park in Casselberry, Florida.
The other win in this matchup came from the number five singles in Naia Miraglia.
Playing at number four singles, Kayla Humphrey had a bounce-back year after struggling a bit during 2018. She went 12-3 in her matchups, which is tied for the team lead in wins. This is her fourth year already on the varsity tennis team.
The final regular singles player is another seventh grader, Madisen Clark. She only lost three times all season and played a bit at number two doubles with various teammates.
CSC eventually went on to lose to Gulliver Prep in the second round of states, but they feel like this was a learning experience despite feeling overlooked by older teams.
Despite having five spots, head coach Melissa Shank is comfortable playing any of her alternates for some of her starters. Jamie Silva and Ella Carmell were those two alternates and were spectacular, winning 12 of their 15 matches combined despite going weeks without playing matches.
“The hardest thing for them is not being in there playing and being the backup,” Shank said. They do an excellent job of supporting their teammates and challenging them to be better. My alternates are right there ready to play, so everyone has to fight hard for a regular spot.”
With the summer approaching, the team has no plans on slowing down. CSC Tennis was just tapped to have players compete in the Fast 4 Tournament which, according to Shank, is an honor when you look at some of the teams who were contacted.
Shank said, “They are all pretty young, and they are playing against kids that are juniors and seniors. It’s a great experience for these girls to win now when some of them are only in seventh grade.”
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