There isn’t much time between the start of practice and the first competition for the Powell High School tennis team. To be specific, just 10 days stand in between.

Some team members have played the sport for several years. Others hardly know the basic rules of tennis.

That’s why this short window to prepare will be so critical.

“It’s really important,” PHS tennis coach Joe Asay said. “There’s a few occasions where they don’t even know how to score the game. It’s good to come out here and have these upperclassmen lead by example and work through those fundamentals so the younger people can kind of get that core understanding of the game.”

The boys’ team is fresh off a 2019 state championship in which the Panthers didn’t lose a team match. Powell, however, returns just two of its everyday players on this year’s squad: Logan Brown and Ethan Bartholomew.

Two of the alternates from the 2019 team, Kolt Flores and Aiden Chandler, will make the jump to being full-time varsity players this year. Not one player on the boys’ side is a senior.

Though much of the personnel has changed since the Panthers won state, Asay said he is confident in how the 2020 team stacks up.

“It will certainly be some big shoes to fill,” Asay said. “There’s always going to be a kid that works really hard either before the season or during that will step in and fill those shoes. I’m excited that we’ve got a few sophomore boys that would’ve been able to compete last year; we just had our spots filled by some upperclassmen. They’re going to fill in really nicely.”

For Brown and Bartholomew, they now have a taste of winning. This could help as they move into leadership roles on a squad looking to defend a title.

“Now they know what it looks like to have a championship,” Asay said. “Down the road, all those boys were either runners-up or champions. In their own individual spots, they know what it takes to win.”

On the girls’ side, the Panthers are coming off a 5-6 season overall, with a 12th-place finish at the state tournament.

The team returns all but two of its players from 2019, with Sloane Asay and Hailee Paul graduating. Returners include last year’s No. 2 singles player, Ashley Dunkerley, and several doubles athletes.

With several players already having varsity experience, Asay predicts 2020 could be a large step forward for the girls’ program.

“I’m really excited for our girls,” Asay said. “It’s great that they’re almost all returning. Most of them are back, plus a couple alternates that will step in well.”

Not only does the girls’ ream have plenty of experience, the players also used a long offseason to sharpen their skills.

“They’ve had camps, some separate individual instruction, so I’m pretty excited to see how the girls will fill those roles,” Asay said.

The Panthers will host two competitors from Gillette — Campbell County and Thunder Basin high schools — at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Thursday, respectively. The Powell team will then head south on Saturday, for a noon matchup with Rock Springs and a 3 p.m. bout with Green River. A home match with Cody follows at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25.