4-Time Title Winner Headlines #1 Finals
October 21, 2020
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
When he got to the court at Portland High School, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett senior William Cooksey discovered a realization: He was about to end his storied high school career at the same place he began it.
“His very first match was at Portland High School, and his last match was played at Portland High School,” Liggett head coach Mark Sobieralski said. “Isn’t that crazy?”
Even crazier was the high school career Cooksey ended up producing, as he made it four MHSAA Finals championships at No. 1 singles following a 6-0, 6-3 win over Andrew Solarewicz of Grand Rapids West Catholic in the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final.
Cooksey became the first Lower Peninsula athlete to win four MHSAA Finals boys No. 1 singles titles since Hamtramck’s Francisco Castillo did so from 1957-60. Only five athletes total, both peninsulas combined, have won four championships at the top flight.
Ranked No. 8 in the nation for his age group, the 17-year-old Cooksey will play collegiately at University of Michigan.
“I was going in there expecting a physical match,” Cooksey said of Wednesday’s final. “I started off playing really clean and hitting big. He wasn’t used to that ball. Towards the middle of the second set, he kind of caught on to it. I kind of adjusted from there and put more balls in play.”
Earlier in the day, Cooksey beat both Malachi Yaffey of Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian and Andrew Frost of Grand Rapids Catholic Central by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores.
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the MHSAA Boys Tennis Tournament this fall was adjusted from its usual flighted bracket format to a head-to-head team event. Liggett won the LP Division 4 team title Friday, and Wednesday the top eight No. 1 singles players in each division faced off for individual championships.
Division 1
Okemos senior Josh Portnoy might not have been the top seed going into his Division 1 individual championship match against Gabe Brown of Troy Athens, but he did have two other things going for him.
One was that he had homecourt advantage with the Final taking place at Okemos.
“I really felt like it was an advantage,” said Portnoy, the No. 2 seed. “Having friends and teammates there cheering for me and practicing there gave me an advantage.”
The other edge was having some knowledge of Brown, who beat Portnoy earlier this season.
“Just play free and just play my game,” Portnoy said of his big adjustment for the rematch. “Definitely play more aggressive and be on the offense more.”
Portnoy certainly did that, earning a surprisingly dominant 6-1, 6-1 win over Brown to capture the championship.
It turned out to be a double title for Portnoy after Okemos won the Division 1 team title five days earlier.
Portnoy started off the day with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Angie Zhou of Ann Arbor Pioneer before beating Noah Roslin in their semifinal, 6-4, 6-4.
Brown beat Anthony Van Oyen of Ann Arbor Skyline 6-4, 6-0 and Matthew Freeman of Northville in the semifinals 6-2, 6-2.
Division 2
Mattawan senior Nathaniel Webster said he had never experienced pain like that before on a tennis court.
While up 2-1 in the second set of his championship match at Lansing Waverly against Nick Herdoiza of Walled Lake Central, Webster said he started experiencing a “whole-body cramp.”
Webster won the first set 6-4, but the cramp was so severe that he said he was forced to serve underhand the rest of the match.
“My teammates were there cheering, and I got a lot of adrenaline going,” Webster said. “I don’t know what happened.”
What eventually happened was that Webster overcame the pain and grinded his way to a second-straight No. 1 singles title, beating Herdoiza in the second set 6-2.
Seeded No. 1, Webster beat Alex Wootton of Portage Northern in a quarterfinal, 6-3, 6-0, and Sammy Yin of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central in a semifinal, 6-3, 6-1, to earn the opportunity to repeat.
Webster will play collegiately at Ball State.
“This was a lot sweeter,” he said, comparing to 2019. “I was cramping in my last match a lot, so it was more hard-fought than last year. Just to go out my senior year with all my friends, it felt great to go out like this.”
Division 3
Ann Arbor Greenhills junior Mert Oral repeated as No. 1 singles champion in this division in impressive fashion at Mason, beating Owen DeMuth of Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood in the final, 6-0, 6-1.
“It feels good to be able to back up what I did last year, for sure,” he said.
Oral lost just two games the entire day, beating Sreejay Ramakrishnan of Ada Forest Hills Eastern in a quarterfinal, 6-0, 6-0, and Simon Volkema of Grand Rapids Christian in a semifinal, 6-1, 6-0.
“My serve was pretty good,” Oral said. “I was really consistent. I was able to use my forehand from the baseline and was really happy with the way I was able to compete and battle throughout my matches.”
PHOTO: Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett senior William Cooksey volleys during Friday’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 team championship tournament at Portage Central.
Clarkston Ace Ready for Final Title Drive
September 26, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
CLARKSTON – While striving for his first MHSAA Finals title in one sport, Luke Baylis is looking to be a part of a repeat championship in another.
A senior at Clarkston High School, Baylis is head of the powder puff committee for his class, a job that entails collecting money, setting the rules and overseeing the team as it goes for a second consecutive win.
“As juniors they beat the seniors last year,” said Baylis, who served in the same role for the junior squad a year ago. “They’re a pretty solid team. Hopefully they’ll win again.”
As the powder puff team pursues school bragging rights, Baylis is in the midst of a statewide quest.
An all-state tennis player his first three years of high school, Baylis is looking to cap off his career with a Lower Peninsula Division 1 individual title at No. 1 singles after contending for the flight championship the last two years.
Baylis has lost in the No. 1 semifinals both of the last two years, falling to Troy’s Steven Forman two years ago, 6-0, 6-0; and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice’s Jarreau Campbell in three sets last year.
As a freshman, Baylis lost in the championship match at No. 2 singles to Andrew Zhang of Bloomfield Hills, the title winner at No. 1 singles in 2018.
With Campbell and Zhang graduated, this could be the time for Baylis.
“I definitely think there is a pretty big opportunity,” said Baylis, who carries a 4.1 grade-point average. “I’m definitely feeling a little more pressure, but the pressure is good at the same time. It’s not bad pressure.”
Baylis said his parents have told him that he has had a “racquet in his hands since he was a baby,” but he started playing competitively when he was 6 years old.
Baylis also dabbled in basketball, an obsession in the Clarkston community. But despite that, he didn’t have any dreams of suiting up for the decorated Wolves hoops program.
“I kind of knew I always liked tennis more,” Baylis said. “I knew I really wasn’t going to be playing varsity basketball, so I moved on and started playing tennis more competitively.”
Baylis certainly does play competitively during the summer, saying he’s usually gone every weekend competing at junior tournaments.
Clarkston head coach Chas Claus said Baylis’ biggest strength is his poise.
Claus pointed out there are no situations in matches where Baylis gets frustrated, starts talking to himself or shouts in anger.
“He’s very tough to fluster,” Claus said. “I’ve rarely seen him out of sorts in a match where he didn’t pull through and figure it out.”
Baylis, who currently has a 20-1 record, will play in college at Michigan State, choosing the Spartans over Notre Dame.
“It had the best feeling,” Baylis said of a visit to MSU. “When I stepped on campus, I knew it was right. Nothing felt quite as right as the team at Michigan State.”
Before making the move to East Lansing, he wants to apply the lessons he’s learned the last three years when he gets a final crack at a Finals title next month.
“I got tight in certain situations,” Baylis said. “I think it definitely made me stronger and a little more motivated going into this year after that semifinal loss.”
By the time the Finals wrap up Oct. 19 in Midland, Baylis hopes he’ll have two titles in the bag – a tennis championship to go with a second powder puff crown for his senior class.
PHOTOS: (Top) Clarkston’s Luke Baylis returns a volley during first-day play at the 2017 LP Division 1 Finals. (Middle) Baylis has made the No. 1 singles semifinals the last two seasons. (Top photo by HighSchoolSportsScene.com; middle courtesy of Luke Baylis.)