A late January hire at Mingus Union High School, Larry Lineberry hasn’t had much time to get back in his groove as a head boys tennis coach.
Entering his 40th year of coaching the sport, Lineberry and his Marauders have yet to win their first match as a team after being edged by their third opponent, 5-4, at Bradshaw Mountain High School.
But coming off a 7-5 finish last spring, the best in her two separate tenures as head girls coach, Andrea Meyer’s Marauders are unbeaten through their first three matches.
Strong doubles team performances overcame the absence of three girls due to flu in their second 5-4 team victory in their first three games March 2 at their home opener against Flagstaff.
Boys Tennis
“I started talking with my wife and said, ‘You know, I coached boys for a lot of years, a long time ago,’ recalled Lineberry, former Sedona Red Rock High School coach from 2008 to 2011 and the third boys tennis coach in three years at MUHS. “‘But my afternoon schedule’s opened up.’
“They’re paying us, but by the time you break it down per hour, it’s a joke. But I put my name in the hat, and they said, ‘Glad to have you.’”
Lineberry knows he has some coaching — and catching — up to do with his nine players to get his current roster near the level left by his son, Alex, 2009 state doubles champion as a MUHS junior and four-time USTA Junior Tennis Player of the Year.
“I’m probably the only master pro in the country coaching high school tennis right now,” he said. “But that’s all right. This is how I help.”
While half of last year’s Division II state tournament doubles team, Turner Walz, chose to focus on academics this spring for the Marauders, the other half, fellow senior Logan Connella, has a shot to do some damage in the singles tournament.
“If I had a goal I thought could be obtained, at this point, that would be [it],” Lineberry said. “He had a winning record last year.”
Senior Jerry Hernandez, the MUHS singles representative at State last year, is back in the No. 2 slot. Lineberry has “virtually no doubt” the two will pair up on his No. 1 doubles team. Senior Ian Flannery and his younger brother, Alex, return as the Nos. 3 and 4 singles players as well as the second doubles option.
Sophomores Caleb Wylie, Crue Taylor and Nick Ruggiero remain in a battle for the final doubles team and Nos. 5 and 6 on the singles ladder.
“I told each one of them, ‘I don’t care what our record is,’” Lineberry said. “‘I care that you learn the game and that you love the sport enough that you keep playing after high school — in the off-season, all the time.’
“First comes right, then comes wins. Those people who don’t learn the right way, they reach a certain point where they say, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore. It’s not fun.’”
Girls Tennis
“I think this team could have more wins, and more individual wins, than any other team I’ve coached,” said Meyer, closing in on her 20th season coaching Marauders girls tennis. “They could. This year.”
It helps Meyer that, of her 11 players out, she inherits her top five from last season.
They are led by senior Olivia Galluzzi, who hopes to break out of the state tournament play-in rounds this spring after a team-best 7-3 match play record last season.
“First time we’ve had a winning record since I’ve been coaching,” Meyer said. “Having a combination of young, talented, coachable girls and assistants who know what they’re doing with teenagers made all the difference.”
Gifted sophomores Talon Whiteley and Emma Williams follow Galluzzi.
“They have played a lot more hours of tennis, taken some lessons,” Meyer said. “Emma came out in open court tennis and developed her game some more.”
But Whiteley remains secure as Galluzzi’s doubles partner despite a knee injury limiting her off-season practice.
Junior Phoebe Chilton and senior Abii Almanza are currently fourth and fifth, respectively, on the girls singles ladder.
“That middle of the ladder, Nos. 3, 4 and 5, they’re all close and could change,” Meyer said. “They just hadn’t had enough time to play challenge [match]es before the season started.”
Junior Maya Federbush is battling sisters Pei-Chi and Pei-Wen Yang for the sixth and final singles slot.
For the full Marauders tennis schedules and more photos, please see the Wednesday, March 9, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
