The spring of 2020 COVID-19 pandemic eliminated the freshman tennis season for Garden City High School’s Logan Morren and thousands of other student-athletes across the state of Kansas.
Instead of feeling sorry for himself when he had no control over the cancellation of that entire spring season, Morren found a way to prepare himself for his future competitions on the Buffaloes’ boys’ tennis program.
During the spring and the following summer months, Morren and his older brother, Nathan – himself a former GCHS tennis player – played as often as possible, practicing and working to improve all facets of his game.
That hard work paid off in 2021 when spring sports were reinstated and the ultimate result came on Monday, May 3, when Morren and his Buffalo teammates captured the Western Athletic Conference team championship, he won the No. 1 singles division and thus earned the WAC Tennis Player of the Year award.
All in all, a pretty successful sophomore season for the Buffaloes’ top player.
For Morren, though, the success is not the end result, but only part and parcel of the journey that he took and the philosophy he has adopted.
“My goals in the past have always been to play as hard as I could, and no matter if I lost I would just keep working to improve,” Morren said recently. “Even if you try hard and win, or you played bad, it’s good to do the best you can.”
A year ago, when the Buffs were going through pre-season ranking matches, Morren had been slotted in as the No. 3 player on the team, most likely meaning he would have been playing doubles.
“We had a really young team then, too,” Morren said. “We were excited about the chance to finally play high school tennis and then the season just went away. It was very difficult not to be playing in the spring.”
So in an effort to refine and improve his game, Morren sought out his older brother, Nathan, to play a lot of matches between the two and to work on every aspect of his game.
“I worked on my backhands, my forehands, really just about every part of my game,” Morren said. “As a team, I knew we had some good players so we just had to develop the correct mindset and stay positive.”
When the 2021 season finally arrived, only Charles Stillian, a senior, had any previous varsity experience, so Morren knew there would be a time of growth and improvement for the young Buffaloes.
“I think Charles did a great job of helping all of us out, and we just all worked hard to improve,” Morren said. “With all of us helping each other, every one improved during the season.”
Winning the No. 1 singles title in WAC was not exactly one of ultimate goals, but it was something Morren had in mind as the season progressed.
Standing in his way was Erik Martinez of Dodge City, who had twice beaten Morren in the regular season. But on that most important day, playing on his home court, Morren won a hotly-contested match, 8-6.
“It just showed the improvement that I had made and having the right mindset was a big factor for me,” Morren said.
Was he surprised at his season’s success?
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said. “I practiced and prepared to the best of my ability and I’ve been able to achieve my main goals – winning WAC and qualifying for state.”
Upon finding out he was voted the WAC Player of the Year, Morren said he was surprised and somewhat overwhelmed.
“There was a lot of joy in finding out,” he said. “I thought Erik (Dodge City’s Martinez) might win the award since I had lost to him earlier in the season. But winning this award makes me very happy. I still have a lot of work to get better.”
Morren’s coach, Logan Bevis, who is completing his first full season as the head of the Buffs’ program, said his top singles player had worked extremely hard and improved a lot during this season.
“It’s obviously an awesome award for him,” Bevis said. “I remember at the beginning of the year he was legitimately afraid of playing No. 1 singles. He talked about how his brothers (who both played in 2019) told him how good No. 1 singles was and that he was going to be in for a rough year.”
In that first tournament back in early April, Morren posted a 3-2 record to shake off some of the nerves and apprehensions.
“His first place finish at the WAC was the culmination of this growth,” Bevis said. “The fact he had lost to Martinez (0-8) early shows how much he has improved, especially in the mental part of tennis.”
Morren was looking to his state participation on May 14-15 as an opportunity to learn.
“I know state will be pretty tricky and it’s always hard for everyone,” Morren said. “The players from the East are always so good, but we go with the idea to play as hard as we can and learn from it.”
WAC All-Conference Tennis Team
| No. 1 Singles | Logan Morren | Garden City |
| No. 2 Singles | Colin Kleysteuber | Garden City |
| No. 1 Doubles | Bryce Moore/Chris Velez | Dodge City |
| No. 2 Doubles | John Tran/Joshua Negron | Garden City |
| Player of the Year | Logan Morren | Garden City |
| Coach of the Year | Logan Bevis | Garden City |
