Continental equals tough teams, no matter what the sport.

Another example of this is boys tennis in the Class 5A Continental League. Last year, Regis took down the what-seemed-to-be-permanent defending state champion Cherry Creek as the 5A title winners. They are expected to give the Continental League a bruising this year as well.

Heritage, with a new head coach, Rick LaBonville, to replace Robin Miller, and Legend keep coming up on the lips of other Continental coaches as two teams, besides Regis, to watch out for.

“It’s a very tough league,” Chaparral coach Ed Anderson said. “Legend, Mountain Vista, Regis and Heritage are all very tough.”

The Wolverines hit the courts with a mix of young and veteran players, all of which are very team oriented, Anderson said.

Over in Highlands Ranch, Gagan Jain may be making the biggest contribution to Continental for ThunderRidge as their No. 1 singles player. Jain finished eighth at the Class 5A state championship tournament last year after eliminating Cherry Creek’s No. 1 counterpart.

As for Continental standings, the Grizzlies look to finish among the best.

“Our goal is to finish in the top three as well as send multiple players to state.,” Grizzlies coach Chad Hanson said. “This will define whether or not we have succeeded.”

Down the street from ThunderRidge, Mountain Vista also has some exciting talent lining up for another season, despite only having two seniors on varsity. However, Vista managed to defeat Heritage early in the season. It was the first time Vista beat Heritage, ever.

 In fact, the Golden Eagles won their first four matches including bouts against Chaparral and Littleton.

“I think this could be the most exciting and successful year in school history,” Vista coach Jim Flanigan said. “We have a top notch No. 1 singles player in Vignesh Senthilvel, and we have underclassmen at rounding out the singles in Michael Shin and Thomas Van De Pas. I think we have an opportunity to have our strongest league standing in school history.”

Flanigan agreed Regis and Legend were going to be two of the toughest on the Golden Eagles’ schedule this year.

Legend started the season 2-1 after sweeping Douglas County Aug. 30 7-0. This followed a 7-0 sweep over Rock Canyon, which comes to the court with a new coach in Manuel Gonzales, who was pleased to see the Jaguars split sets against the Titans in three of the seven matches. Earlier than that, Canyon beat Douglas County.

“I have a large group of young energetic boys and great seniors that have provided a lot of leadership to the team,” Gonzales said.

Among other Continental League scores, Castle View defeated Douglas County 7-0 as Mark Kroll, Connor Velvin and Ethan Wood return as three of the team’s best.