Talk about a turnaround.

This time last year the Tahoma boys tennis team was 2-8 in South Puget Sound League 4A North competition.

Now the Bears sport a 7-3 record as well as a second place finish in the division.

Junior Cory Cox said this year other teams in the league had to take them seriously.

“Most of the teams look at us as underdogs,” Cox said. “This year we had a 180 degree turnaround. We looked at last year’s record and that was embarassing. So we decided to turn it around and we did.”

Cox, who is part of a junior-heavy team, said this Bears squad has a key element that has led to that turnaround.

“We have one thing other teams don’t: depth,” Cox said. “At Tahoma we have a full eight players that are just champs.”

Noah Adam, the lone senior on the team, explained there is even more to the Tahoma team this year to explain the success.

“Our team cohesivity has been at an all-time high,” Adam said. “In the past tennis has been viewed as an individual sport but this year we’ve been playing more as a single unit. That team mentality has made a difference, especially in our harder matches.”

For example, Tahoma has beat Kentwood twice. It’s the first time in more than a decade the Bears have beaten the Conquerors on the tennis court twice in one season.

“To me it just shows the physical manifestation of all our hard work,” Adam said. “All of these guys have worked their butts off in the offseason which showed in the Kentwood matches.”

Adam had high expectations for Tahoma’s potential in the league tournament, too, saying he was confident the guys who were playing would win their first-round matches and he hoped they could continue to perform well against top tier players in the second round.

As far as who could make it to the state tournament in the spring, Adam said the best bets were The Galgano brothers, Carter and Davis, as well as the doubles team of Cox and junior Joe Joe Jimenez.

“Carter Galgano is the glue that keeps us together,” Adam said. “He’s definitely the hardest worker of all of us.”

At the end of the day, Adam said, he was pleased with where the Bears stood at the end of the regular season.

“For the team I feel like was the result of finishing in second place,” Adam said. “That’s better than any other team in Tahoma history. That’s been the biggest highlight.”

Cox is also confident of how the players who have moved on to the post-season will do.

“The rest of this year, do the best that we can inSPSL and next year our goal is to take league,” Cox said. “On the daily, we all just work our hardest to be in the best physical shape.”