BOYS TENNIS

Claremont High School boys tennis starts this season with a lot of new players and a new coach, Kathy Settles. However, coach Settles is not new to CHS, being both a parent and the coach of the girls team.

The Pack finished the Palomares League ranked number two last year led by Andrew Leahy and Layton Bohren. Now in his senior year, Leahy will be the team’s number one seed this year followed by sophomore Bohren. In addition, they have added some strong freshman and will have a very good junior varsity squad as well.

“We are going to be good this year,” said coach Settles. “We brought in four freshman who are playing year round so they have added a ton of depth. I inherited a very talented team and then we brought in a lot of good talent. We are going to be really good at singles.”

Claremont just won the Etiwanda tournament over the weekend defeating both Glendora and Bonita in the process, which bodes well for the upcoming season as both teams are in the Palomares League. The boys have a preseason match on March ninth at Walnut.

An interesting side note, the Pack has two sets of twins: returning players Harrison and Hunter Bojalad plus freshmen Andrew and Jason Weisman.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

Boys volleyball had its worst season in a long time last year, which was difficult for a team that has won the league title many times including in 2013. Many top players graduated in 2014 and coach Bernie Wendling had to start from scratch with several boys who had never played volleyball.

The Pack has already played in a tournament in south Orange County that included Huntington Beach, the number one team in America.

“We beat a good south county team, Aliso Niguel, so that is a positive sign for us,” said coach Wendling. “We are still inexperienced but we have a good work ethic, you can see the guys are training hard.”

“We missed the playoffs for the first time in 21 years last year so that was hard,” said coach Wendling.

The Pack will play in two tournaments over the next week and coach Wendling feels that he should know where his team stands by the time league starts against Glendale on Tuesday, March 15. “We got some guys who can hit the ball hard, so we are excited about this year,” he said.

Leading the team this year are captains Keoni Duke and Matthew Mitchell.

SWIMMING

CHS swimming gets the action started with the Palomares League Relays on Saturday and follows up with the first preseason meet on Tuesday against Walnut High in Walnut.

“I’m actually very excited about this season, we’ve got a lot of depth and starting practice looking pretty good,” said coach Courtney Eads who led the Pack last year as well.

Junior Ben Eagleton will be back, presumably dominating in the 50-meter freestyle. Also returning are breaststroke starters Katrina Strash and freestyler Samantha Duran. Some new faces to look for are Sophie Jackson and Mary Margrave, as well as Toby Jackson for the boys.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com