Congratulations to West Valley High School tennis team on receiving the State Academic award at the annual ASAA State Tennis Championship Awards Ceremony. West Valley's team participated in the state tournament and award ceremony earlier this month in Anchorage.
The award goes to the team whose participating players have the highest cumulative grade point average in relation to all the other schools participating in the tournament.
"All of our players whose GPAs counted towards this award had a GPA of 4.0 at minimum. Two of our players had GPAs higher than 4.0. For the award, our team had a perfect 4.0 GPA, higher than any other of the teams at the Tournament," said Sabine Siekmann, WVH Tennis Head Coach.
The players on the West Valley teams are:
• Axton Siekmann
• Connor Ilgenfritz
• Jakan Reinheller
• Logan Reinheller
• Zia Siekmann (freshman)
Grades are based on the final grades at the end of the previous spring semester. Grades for freshmen are excluded from the calculation. The scale is on a 4-point maximum scale, since not all schools use a scale that allows for GPAs above 4.0.
In addition to excelling in the classroom, the tennis team also demonstrated excellence on the tennis court. West Valley brought home two third-place medals:
• Axton Siekmann, placed third in Boys Singles (the only player from outside of Anchorage to place in this division)
• Jakan & Logan Reinheller, placed third in Boys Doubles (also the only players outside of Anchorage to place in this division)
Overall, Region VI had a great showing at the tournament taking home two more third-place finishes:
• Grace White (Monroe) placed third in Girls Singles
• Tifani Hollcraft & Elodie Dahle (Lathrop) placed third in Girls Doubles
"The athletic accomplishment should not be underestimated, since Fairbanks does not have any indoor tennis courts available for our players to practice their sport year-round," said Siekmann. "Student-by-student not only West Valley, but Region VI outperformed other schools and regions in the State as a whole."
There are four indoor tennis courts in Anchorage and two indoor courts in Juneau, which is a significant advantage for players in those locations. In addition, West Anchorage (the most successful school every year) has 67 tennis players on its tennis roster, while West Valley has 18 tennis players participating in the current season. In Region VI combined, there are only 70 total student-athletes who participate in tennis.
