Dogged Pursuit: Libby's Ryan Beagle chases another title

Ryan Beagle started his tennis career early, in that Libby coach Kyle Hannah dragged the 6-year-old out to the courts for a few summer volleys.

He must have caught the bug, because his ninth-grade year Beagle was still hanging around the courts. Then things went surprisingly well that spring of 2022. 

“I always knew I wanted to play in high school, but I didn’t really start taking it seriously until my freshman year,” Beagle said last week, after a singles match against Whitefish’s Jack Oehlerich. “I just kind of got out there and was hitting the ball, and then I took third at state. I was like, ‘Oh. Maybe I should work at this a little bit.’ “ 

These days Beagle is a reigning state champion, having beaten the since-graduated Torin Ellis of Polson in last year’s State A singles final.  

That 7-6, 6-0 victory was a landmark: He was the first Libby boy to win a singles title. Now he’s focused on another. 

“We have had numerous kids take second and third,” Hannah said. “We’ve had some success, but the only other champion I’ve had is Jackie Mee, in the girls singles back in 2009. 

“His goal is to run the gauntlet, but he also knows once you win it the target is on his back. He fully expects every match to be a shootout.” 

The rare individual championships bely an impressive amount of success for the Logger programs, which Hannah took over in 2006. 

“I got my first teaching job in Libby, and they were looking for a tennis coach,” Hannah, who played for legendary coach Jim Gregg at Cut Bank High, said. “And I was about the only one who’d played. 

“You know, we take pride in our program because we have no indoor facility — we’re 90 miles from anything close, you know? And in the winter it’s not good roads.” 

Out of this wilderness the Loggers have garnered two third-place trophies for the boys and another for the girls. And in 2015-17, when shrinking enrollment dropped Libby out of A, they won back-to-back State B boys titles while the girls were second once. 

The latest trophy came last year at State A and was thanks to Beagle: He scored all of Libby’s 16 points. He stands 5-foot-7 but has ample speed, which you might expect from the brother of Griz sprinter Jay Beagle. And there’s his motor. 

“There’s no quit in him,” Hannah said. “When he’s playing unsure of himself, he’ll start playing defensively, but then once he gets his grove it is 2-3 shots and the point’s over.” 

Friday he trailed Oehlerich, Whitefish’s hard-hitting junior, 5-4 in the first set. Neither player seemed to be able to hold serve before Beagle quickly won three straight games and the set. He took the next one 6-3. 

“We’re going to have some battles this season, for sure,” Beagle said of Oehlerich. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him at state.” 

The bracket would have some other familiar faces, though players like Ellis, Hamilton’s Andy Purcell and Hardin’s Jameson Noteboom aren’t back. It was Purcell who beat Beagle in the 2023 singles semifinals; Beagle eventually beat Noteboom for third. 

“The goal the sophomore year to get to the top, too,” Beagle noted. “Then when I lost to Andy it hurt like a son of a gun. That summer I definitely just worked a lot more. It was championship or bust, for sure.” 

He drove to The Summit weekly to hit with pro Brad Knutson; he went to the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula for more work.  

It paid off: He beat Purcell — the defending singles champion — 4 and 0 in last year’s semis before beating Ellis for, by Beagle’s count, the seventh time in 11 matchups. 

“We had 30-shot rallies of just ripping forehands,” Beagle said. “It’s going to be weird not playing Torin anymore.” 

The Loggers have a dual at Bigfork Thursday and then return home, where they’ll put down roots. The Libby Invitational is April 25-26, and then there are two home duals before they host the divisional tournament May 15-17. 

This year’s State A tournament is in Billings. Beagle, who plans to play at the club level while attending the University of Montana, is on a mission. Even if he already has his name in lights in the halls of Libby High. 

“So awesome,” he said. “I was the first state champion on the boys side in Libby history. To finally get in the hall of fame and be a state champion was just a great feeling.”