PROVO — Two years ago, a couple of skinny Timpview tennis players named Brad Ferguson and Kevin Stanworth were finishing up two of the most prolific careers in Utah County prep tennis history.
At the conclusion of the 2004 season, Ferguson and Stanworth each collected his third individual state title and together they led the T-Birds to a second straight 4A team state championship.
Timpview coach Nate Warner resigned at the end of that 2004 season, citing a busy schedule and a desire to devote more time to his job as a high school guidance counselor. Whatever the real motivation behind Warner's resignation, this much is clear: The Ferguson-Stanworth dynamic duo was on its way out the door courtesy of graduation, and in its place eight incoming freshmen would join the Timpview tennis team in 2005.
To replace Warner, Timpview hired Rob Sperry, a local club pro and tennis instructor who had helped coach the T-Bird teams his children played on nearly a decade before.
While the rest of the local tennis scene thought he had a major rebuilding project on his hands, Sperry instead boldly planned to concoct his own brand of lemonade with the lemons he'd been given.
"Having (eight freshmen) on the team (in 2005), the way I looked at it was that they were young and they were very coachable," Sperry said. "Freshmen are opportunity."
The key to Sperry's approach is simple in theory but uncommon in practice among high school teams in Utah County: Let the kids battle each other for pecking order until as late in the season as possible.
"Transparency in tennis, that's how you don't create arguments," Sperry said. "But almost every (high school) team that I know of, they have it determined in tryouts. I didn't do it that way for two reasons: First, if you want the kids to continue to work hard out here on the court, then they need to have something to work hard for. And secondly, I wanted to give everybody as long of a chance to be able to prove themselves."
Although the 13-10 final margin at the 2005 state tournament was considerably slimmer than those during the Ferguson-Stanworth era, Timpview scrapped and scraped and somehow managed to cobble together a third straight 4A team championship.
"Basically it was a team effort with very coachable kids," Sperry said. "We knew that we had to try and get points from everywhere versus just a dominance in any one or two spots."
If there is a downside to Sperry's system, it's that there's no room for egos, coddling or special treatment. Although that sounds nice and good on paper, the rubber-hits-the-road reality of it all can be tougher to swallow. Just ask Adam Frederico.
As a junior, Frederico was last year's runner-up at state in No. 2 singles. Short and slight with no extraordinary physical gifts, he makes his living on the court by out-strategizing his opponent and counterpunching.
"I go into the match not having a game plan except trying to figure out how to beat the other player," Frederico said. "Basically, I just play as smart as I can until I figure out how to beat them. Most people I play just end up beating themselves."
But Frederico has been demoted for his senior season to No. 3 singles at the expense of Tanner Perry. The pair played three closely contested matches over the first half of the season; Frederico won the first, but Perry prevailed in the final two. Thus, per Sperry's system, the nod at No. 2 singles goes to Perry, a 6-foot-3 sophomore who won the No. 3 singles state title a year ago.
Really, it was just a matter of time until the more physically gifted Perry either caught up to or figured out Frederico. But consider: Coming into the season, Frederico could lay claim to being the top returning No. 2 singles player in 4A, it's his senior season, Perry barely beat him by the slimmest of margins, and Perry will have two campaigns after this in which he'll most likely be entrenched as Timpview's No. 1 singles stud. Is that really fair, or is it just blind indifference?
When asked for his feelings on the matter, Frederico chose his words carefully. Sure, he said all the right things, but the way he said them left the distinct impression that a part of his tennis-playing heart has been broken.
"At first, it's tough because you're fighting your own teammates," Frederico said. "We're both really good players. Tanner beat me, and so it's great that he can play No. 2 (singles). It's just good for the team that we can have such a deep roster, that we're all good enough that we can play pretty much any of the spots.
"The players are weaker (at No. 3 singles). That's the only downside. I don't think it's any worse. Singles is singles, and we're all going to do pretty well at region and at state."
This year, the T-Birds are flat-out loaded. They return Jason Johnson, Frederico and Perry in their three singles slots as well as Jeff Gaufin, Parker Dobson and Brett Bahme in doubles. With talented freshmen Cal Larsen and Skyler Evans in the mix, there are eight players vying for the seven varsity spots.
Despite normally playing singles, Larsen and Evans are adapting to their role at No. 1 doubles.
"We've worked a lot on doubles strategies and how to play and how to think," Larsen said. "Because both Skyler and I are singles players and this is our first time playing doubles together, coach Sperry is helping us to learn how to play as a team."
With Evans and Larsen moving over from singles play to doubles, that leaves Gaufin, Dobson and Bahme to duke it out at No. 2 doubles. The same exact scenario occurred last year, when Dobson was the odd man out. Unlike singles, a certain amount of subjectivity inevitably enters the debate about which pairing of three players constitutes the best doubles team. In other words, the final call for the doubles slots is Sperry's.
"Dobson was the eighth person last year," Sperry said. "I had to make a decision right at the end, and I made a decision, but it didn't come down on Parker's side.
"This year, I said to Parker, 'You're doing as good as the other two players, and you'll have an opportunity.' Nobody on this team has worked harder than Parker. He's improved, and it shows."
Regardless of whoever the ax falls on this time around, Sperry knows that his No. 2 doubles entry is just as critical to a fourth consecutive state team title as any other part of the team.
"As far as the doubles go, I remember last year taking state we had to do it as a team," Sperry said. "There were three key matches, and one of them was (at No. 2 doubles). They had to work their guts out — and they were able to pull it off and get that point for us.
"That second doubles team is just as important as first singles — that's why it's called a team. For me, I'm probably spending more time with my doubles than the singles because those doubles players need to know that they're just as important."