Tennis team sends two entries to state Howard is seeded; Zacharias and Rumpel make first trip

Tyler Howard, Baldwin-Woodville's best ever tennis player and four time Middle Border Conference champion, is making his fourth trip to the WIAA Division 2 state tennis tournament.

Howard's record moved to 16-0 as he cruised through sub-sectional and sectional competitors on Monday-Tuesday and Thursday of last week. The sectional win for Howard was his second consecutive year of capturing the championship.

Nathan Zacharias and Ed Rumpel, B-W's number one doubles team, needed just one victory at sectional competition to advance to state, and they did better than that by winning two of their three matches.

B-W Coach Jim Rumpel said a lot of the credit for doubles play goes to Adam Bassak. "I try not to get too involved in doubles matches so Adam handles the coaching and does an excellent job," he said.

According to Coach Rumpel, in every round Howard "faced good, tough competition. And in every round he faced moments when he had to step up his game and he did. He has facets of his game he doesn't always have to tap into but when he had to Thursday he more than did."