by Jerry and Rebecca Carter

For an inaugural season, you cannot hope for better than what the Orcas Christian Saints boy’s tennis team achieved this year: a perfect record.

When athletic director Dave Blisard first dreamt of creating a tennis team, he thought it would be a fun new athletic opportunity for OCS male athletes while the girls focused on volleyball.

The decision to move forward with the team was reinforced by the willingness of Toomas Liblik to coach.

Of the seven athletes on the team, only three had played tennis before joining.

One athlete new to the sport was junior Gabe Sturk, who said, “I just thought of tennis as if volleyball and baseball had a baby and went for it.”

How did a team with so many novices do so well? Assistant coach Andy Rivera cites the expertise and passion of Coach Liblik as the reason for the team’s success.

This sentiment was echoed by Blisard, who said, “Coach Liblik’s leadership and devotion to the sport brought our team to heights we would not have imagined in the program’s infancy.”

Liblik was thankful for a new way to engage his passion for the sport, one he has been playing with his son TJ since TJ was a toddler.

“I am so grateful to OCS for creating the team and giving me this opportunity,” he said. “And I am so proud of our student-athletes. I hope they had as much fun as I did this season.”

The season was a relatively short one, with two matches against Friday Harbor High School and one each against Oak Harbor and Lakewood High Schools. However, next year the team can look forward to a full conference schedule which comes with the ability to quality for the state tournament.