BE boy's tennis team courting third state title in five years
Encore.
What will the Bishop England boys’ tennis team do for an encore this spring after achieving perfection and a Class AAA state championship in 2018?
Coach Kristen Fleming Arnold isn’t sure if the Bishops will be able to duplicate last spring’s 16-0 record, but she promises the Bishops will give 100 percent effort.
“The kids are anxious to start the season and uphold the tradition,” Fleming Arnold said. “They are excited to play this year and create their own legacy.”
The Bishops will seek their third state title in the last five years and 11th overall, but they must do it without last year’s No. 1 singles player Jared Pratt, who now plays at the college level for the Wisconsin Badgers. The team’s No. 2 singles player from last spring, Lleyton Dacuba, also graduated.
“Replacing Jared will be very difficult,” Fleming Arnold said. “He not only had great tennis skills, but he was a leader. He helped motivate the rest of the team.”
The Bishops will benefit from the addition of Hector Romero, an exchange student from Ecuador. He is ranked No. 60 in South Carolina and has a USTA ranking of No. 428 according to the website National Scouting Report.
“You can tell he’s anxious to be part of a team,” Fleming Arnold said of Romero. “And he’s all in with the other guys who have focused on winning another state title.”
The Bishops topped Clinton 6-0 to win the state title last May after surviving Hanahan 4-3 in the Lower State Championship. The razor-thin victory ended the Hawks’ two-year run as state champs.
The Bishops are in the midst of preparing for their season-opening match against Region 7-AAA foe Hanahan on Feb. 26 and still haven’t concluded their challenge matches to determine the pecking order of singles play. But for now, Zach Dacuba appears to be the No. 1 singles player this spring. Harrison Estey currently is penciled in as the No. 2 singles player while Romero is No. 3, Lukas Gosselin is No. 4 and Rafe Flatchman is No. 5.
Fleming Arnold praised Zach Ducuba and Estey for their hard work in the offseason.
“Zach played under his brother and really wants to prove his success,” the coach said.
Fleming Arnold predicts Waccamaw, Academic Magnet and Hanahan should be the top threats to the Bishops’ lower state supremacy. But for now, she just wants to focus on getting her players ready for the upcoming season while building team chemistry.
Fleming Arnold is in a unique situation. A 1993 graduate of BE, Fleming Arnold also coaches the girls’ tennis team. In the fall, the Lady Bishops rolled to a 23-0 record and claimed their eighth straight state title and 23rd overall in the school’s history.
The BE boys’ and girls’ teams have combined for 33 state titles, and Fleming Arnold has been a part of 13 of those titles either as a player or coach.
That’s a perfect combination.