Oct. 2—JAMESTOWN — Luke LeFevre loses track of time when he’s on the tennis court.
“Usually when I hit in the offseason it won’t just be a quick hour of hitting, it usually goes for about three or four hours before I realize what time it is,” said LeFevre, a junior at Jamestown High School.
LeFevre’s hours spent on the court might be the reason he’s the Jays’ No. 1 player this fall.
“I knew that at the end of last year I was gonna take the No. 1 spot so I spent much of the winter getting better,” LeFevre said. “I often hit with my coach Isaac Mimong or my friend Jaxton Dawson. Once I found out for sure that I was to be the No. 1 it didn’t really phase me. It’s just tennis — the only thing that changes is who you play.”
According to the Western Dakota Association website, LeFevre is one of the eight key tennis players to watch this season.
“For me my biggest weapon in tennis is definitely my serve,” LeFevre said. “I’ve got a lot more speed than many of the players I play and I’ve been able to place the ball where I want which leads to many aces and free points. For me training is something that I lack in the sports I play, I prefer to just play. But when I’m hitting around with someone I’ll try to work on different shots I might use in a match.”
LeFevre is one of the more experienced players on the Blue Jays’ roster having started playing at age 5.
“When my dad was around my age he had played some tennis and once he got older a little tennis turned into a lot of tennis,” LeFevre said. “This led to my family going to the courts a lot when I was a kid. What I remember from playing tennis as a kid was mainly just my parents getting mad at me for trying to hit every ball over the fence.”
As LeFevre got older, he became more and more serious about the sport which meant no more — or at least fewer — balls hit outside the fence.
“For a while, I never really liked tennis since it took up a lot of time and I found myself getting in my head every time I played,” he admitted. “Since joining the tennis team though, I’ve made many connections that have helped me to compete at higher levels each year. With these connections, I learned to have fun with the game and started enjoying playing tough opponents. This season I felt comfortable, I kind of knew where I was going to be in the rankings and was excited to play the best in the west.”
As of Oct. 1, the Blue Jays are seven WDA matches deep and are sitting at 3-4 as a team. LeFevre is also 5-2 in terms of WDA singles matches. LeFevre and Braxton Burkett are 4-2 in doubles while LeFevre and Jaxton Dawson are 1-0.
The Blue Jays qualified for the West Region Tournament last week. The Jays will enter the region tournament as the No. 5 seed.
“This year I hope to finish the year with a positive record — it won’t be easy but that’s the goal,” LeFevre said. “The other obvious goal is to make State whether it’s singles or doubles I want to make it again.”
LeFevre qualified for the 2022 Class A State Tournament as a freshman in doubles play.
“Making State was pretty special since tennis isn’t very big in Jamestown,” LeFevre said. “The atmosphere in that match was one of the most fun things to be a part of so far in my Jennis (Jamestown tennis) career. Making State was a big confidence booster for me and is still one of the best memories with Jennis but at WDA last year we had one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever been in. We had three matches on and were very close in all of them, everyone off and on the court was cheering. It would be cool to see that happen again.”
