An unfortunate note to pass along before we get going — Liberty two-sport star Mariah Alvidrez, who will be a senior tore an ACL a couple of weeks ago at a soccer camp and will miss volleyball season and at least part of soccer season. She's an outside hitter and striker and one of the best, if not the best, high school girl around in both sports, so this is devestating news for her and for Liberty. Alvidrez had torn her other ACL a couple of years ago and made a full recovery, so hopefully she's able to get through the rehab process again and come back to play a little more in high school and earn herself a college scholarship. Good luck, Mariah.

On to the Year in Review for tennis, which happens to be one of my favorite sports. Very few other sports are this kind of one-on-one thinking game — wrestling is another. In golf, you've got to think your way through a course, but you don't have to react to an opponent. In track and swimming, there isn't that one-on-one interaction, either. Not to mention, having played quite a bit of tennis, I can tell you it's a much more physically demanding sport than it looks.

Here's a review of who did what last year. Tomorrow brings boys golf and the end of our 2008-09 Year in Reviews.

2008-09 Kern County BOYS TENNIS

Overview: Quite an exciting year for local boys tennis, though, like in so many of these spring sports, most of the excitement centered around a certain school at Buena Vista Road and White Lane. That’d be Stockdale, home of two-time Central Section singles champion Jeremy Quiroz, home of Central Section doubles finalists Blaine Davenport and Pierre Tamer and home of a Central Section Division I team finalist. The Mustangs were present in the three biggest events in high school boys tennis in the Valley. They went 1-for-3.
Quiroz found out just how hard it is to repeat as a singles champion, especially when you’re heavily favored to do so. He needed three sets to get by Visalia-El Diamante’s Ryan Andrade in the section semifinals and then lost a tiebreaker in the first set to El D’s Josh Lorentzen in a rematch of last year’s final. Quiroz and Lorentzen were locked in a tight first game of the second set — Quiroz told me later he felt like he was slowly turning the tide but knew he was in for quite a tussle — when Lorentzen’s calf started to cramp up. It got progressively worse, and Quiroz took the second set rather easily, then was up 2-1 in the third set when Lorentzen finally had to call it quits. Quiroz is the first repeat singles champion since Centennial’s Ryan Haymond in 1999-2000, and while some might call Lorentzen’s retirement a stroke of luck for Quiroz, I say that fitness is a part of the game.
Meanwhile, Davenport and Tamer made a run from the No. 6 seed to the section final — they did get a break when Tehachapi’s No. 10 seed, Tyler Thoms and David Croy, knocked off the two-seed, but Davenport and Tamer beat the Warriors. But the Mustangs’ road would end there with a straight-set loss to Clovis’ Andrew Combs and Steven Gilbert. A few days later, the Mustangs would be groomsmen again, losing a couple of tight singles matches that left them hamstrung in doubles in a 6-3 championship loss to Clovis West.
Elsewhere? 2007 section singles champ Alex Nichols of Bakersfield Christian lost in the semifinals to Lorentzen, but his Eagles easily won the Division V team title. They did not, however, win the South Sequoia League. That honor belonged to Tehachapi for the first time in school history. The Warriors also made a run to the D-III team championship but lost 5-4 to Hanford West. In the very deep SEYL, Bakersfield was a bit better than Liberty and Garces. The Drillers reached the D-I semifinals before losing to Clovis West. Garces, the defending D-III champion, moved up to D-II and reached the final but were blasted there by El Diamante, which might have been the best team in the section in any division.

Best team: Stockdale had a lot of momentum all year, winning the Lynch Cup over Bakersfield Christian and Bakersfield (with Quiroz taking out Nichols and BHS’ David Mossman in a tight match) and then cruising through the SWYL for the umpteenth straight time. The Mustangs had also had some success up north, but they were given the No. 2 seed to Clovis West based on result against common opponents. That road trip proved to be costly, and the Mustangs ended up playing second fiddle to the Golden Eagles. Still, there was clearly no better team around, either at the top — with Quiroz, Davenport and Tamer — or at the bottom of the ladder, where Stockdale’s depth was so overwhelming that they often brought up half the JV team and still swept local opponents.
Honorable mention: Bakersfield, Tehachapi, Garces, Liberty, Bakersfield Christian

Best player: It’s safe to say that Quiroz’s decisions as a sophomore — to leave Bakersfield for a year at an Indian Wells tennis academy — and as a junior — to come back to play for Stockdale — have paid off. It’s rare to see a Valley player back up the singles title with another, either because of complacency, other opportunities (see current pro Robert Kendrick, who didn’t win two at Bullard and Clovis West because he was off to Florida for a while) or younger players coming up and stealing the glory (like what happened to Nichols). But Quiroz did it, and that’s a big credit to his consistent, thundering groundstrokes and clear head. He’ll head to Niagara University in New York next year and try to make some noise at the collegiate level.
Honorable mention: Alex Nichols, Bakersfield Christian; D.J. Johnson, East; David Mossman, Bakersfield; Nick Jacobs, Garces; James Griffin, Frontier; David Croy, Tehachapi

Best event: I saw quite a few entertaining matches this year, but the answer here has to be the individual section finals at Clovis-Buchanan, where Quiroz battled through, Thoms-Croy and Davenport-Tamer sprung some upsets to meet in the semifinals and all of the matches were close. It’s hard to match that much drama packed into one day on a few courts.
Honorable mention: Clovis West 6, Stockdale 3, Division I championship; Hanford West 5, Tehachapi 4, Division III championship; SEYL individual championships

A look ahead: With Quiroz and Nichols both gone, the title of Best Local Player is going to immediately fall to sophomore D.J. Johnson at East. Johnson was home-schooled throughout grade school, but I remember hearing about him when he was eighth grade. The kid is good, and he’s got some competitive fire, too: After he beat David Mossman in a fairly close match for the SEYL singles title, he was truly pumped. I believe some more young guns might come into the picture to challenge Johnson locally, which is a good thing, because Mossman, Jacobs and Griffin are all gone, too. David Croy of Tehachapi might be the other guy who can compete with Johnson locally. Can any of them catch Lorentzen, who will be the hands-down section favorite? Johnson lost to him convincingly in the section quarterfinals, so the local boys have some catching up to do.
On a team level, Stockdale will still be very deep, but the Mustangs will need it because they’ll lack the automatic points that Quiroz often provided. Probably a bit of a slide there. Who fills the gap? Bakersfield maybe, Liberty maybe, Frontier or Centennial maybe. But if Bakersfield Christian gets the influx of talented freshmen it’s expected to, the Eagles likely will at least pass Tehachapi and probably pass everyone locally. Another D-V title is a shoo-in.

Year in Review Index
July 1: Football
July 2: Volleyball
July 3: Boys cross country
July 6: Girls cross country
July 7: Girls tennis
July 8: Girls golf
July 9: Boys basketball
July 10: Girls basketball
July 11: Wrestling
July 13: Boys soccer
July 14: Girls soccer
July 15: Baseball
July 16: Softball
July 18: Boys track and field
July 19: Girls track and field
July 20: Boys swimming
July 21: Girls swimming

Tomorrow: Boys golf