Indian Springs tennis claims second Shelby County tourney

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 11, 2006

For a second-straight year, Indian Springs has the best boys&8217; tennis team in Shelby County.

If there&8217;s one player that Indian Springs head coach Boo Mason can give credit to for his teams&8217; win in the Shelby County Championships on Monday, it&8217;s junior Arie Hefter.

Hefter lost a grand total of two games on his way to a dominating first place finish at the the singles No. 1 spot.

He defeated Pelham&8217;s John McKay (6-0, 6-1) to win the boys&8217; singles title and later teamed up with doubles partner Faris Pacha to win at the No. 1 doubles spot over John McKay and John Flaniken of Pelham (7-5, 6-5).

&8220;We were expected to do well,&8221; Mason said. &8220;And we felt like we could win this tournament coming in.&8221;

Indian Springs blew the competition out of the water at the event, finishing with 61 points compared to second-place Oak Mountain&8217;s 28 points. The Pelham Panthers finished third with 27 points while Briarwood and Thompson finish fourth and fifth with 18 and seven points respectively. Montevallo also competed in the tournament.

Mason credits Hefter&8217;s play for inspiring his entire team, which is unbeaten at 9-0 this season, to perform well in every match.

&8220;If you win at the No. 1 spot, it is such a lift for the rest of your team,&8221; Mason said. &8220;It can be very beneficial. Arie has filled that role great for us this year.&8221;

Briarwood&8217;s Tyler Bass kept Indian Springs from sweeping the entire tournament, as he won at the No. 5 singles spot over Indian Springs&8217; Brett Janich.

Indian Springs&8217; Bryan Song defeated Pelham&8217;s John Flaniken (6-4, 7-5) at the No. 2 spot while Pacha won his singles match at the No. 3 spot over Oak Mountain&8217;s Grayson Parker (6-2, 4-6, 10-3).

Indian Springs&8217; Aljosha Barath defeated Oak Mountain&8217;s Clark Anrich at the No. 4 spot (6-2, 6-2) while teammate Patrick McGowan defeated Oak Mountain&8217;s Patrick Markham (2-6, 6-4, 10-6).

Song and Janich teamed up to beat Pelham&8217;s Ian Flaniken and Andrew Stone at the No. 2 doubles spot (6-2, 6-1) while teammates Barath and McGowan defeated Oak Mountain&8217;s Parker and Tyler Miller at the No. 3 doubles spot (6-7, 7-3, 6-3, 10,3)