BELLA VISTA — Both tennis teams at Bentonville High School remain undefeated this season and it's truly been a team effort, says coach Paul Pautsch.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers easily beat Springdale Har-Ber on Monday in a pair of weather-shortened matches at the Kingsdale Tennis Center. It's the eighth victory against no losses for both teams this year.
Pautsch filled in the lineups for both singles (6) and doubles (3) with junior varsity players. The BHS program has 26 players (boys and girls) on the roster and because of the wide gap between Bentonville's talent level and most other schoolsin the 7A-West, Pautsch takes advantage of opportunities to "empty the bench" when he has the chance.
"These kids are so good," says Pautsch, in his 19th year as BHS coach. "They've been so patient and they buy into what I am telling them. We've played JVs a good share of the time this year."
Pautsch says playing time isn't given out, but rather earned. The "do-right" rule is an edict he enforces - there have been a few suspensions this season for what Pautsch calls players "acting stupid" - and that's also a factor in who plays for BHS from match to match.
"I've been telling these kidsfor 19 years, 'It's a privilege to play tennis for Bentonville High School; it's something you earn,'" he says. "And when you mess up, you pay the piper and guess what? The old man is the piper. But they know that. It's nothing new." Bentonville's schedule this week includes a trip to Springdale today and a home match Thursday against Heritage. Next week
BHS hosts Fayetteville, both for a regularly scheduled match and the conclusion of last week's match postponed by rain.
The Lady Tigers easily beat Fayetteville but the boys' match was postponed with the Tigers ahead 4-2. Pautsch says Bentonville was on the verge of winninga match at No. 2 singles to give the Tigers the victory.
Bentonville already posted a win at No. 1 singles against Fayetteville standout Rob Hodous, last year's conference runnerup.
"I put Brandon Ellis (a top doubles player) at No. 1 singles to sort of punish him for goofing off here lately and what does he do? He beats Hodous," Pautsch says. "That was nice to see that response. But we'll finish that match here (on Sept. 29) and then play the regularly scheduled match. That'll be for first place in the conference."
The 7A-West Conference Tournament is Oct. 12-13. The Class 7A State Tournament is Oct. 19-20 at the University of Arkansas.
Sports, Pages 5 on 09/22/2009