Always Contender, Allegan Now Champion
November 19, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Allegan’s championship story began nearly a half-century ago.
A longtime coach retires after 45 years building one of the state’s strongest tennis programs, even receiving national recognition for his work spreading love for the game – but he never won a championship at the highest level. His program is taken over by a pair of former players, one the longtime girls coach whose son fills the No. 1 singles flight and is among a number of second-generation players on the team.
At the beginning of the season, they write three goals on the dry-erase board in their team room – to win league, Regional and MHSAA Finals championships. They’re finally able to check off every single one, returning home from the season’s final tournament to a police escort after achieving that previously unattainable ultimate goal for the first time.
The Allegan boys tennis team is still celebrating its Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship won Oct. 18-19, a crowning achievement following the 45-year coaching career of Gary Ellis which concluded after the 2018 season. Former players Jen Aldrich and Seth Arthur took over as co-coaches this fall and – with a lineup of players brought up through the community’s tennis program – added the highest prize to Ellis’ legacy while creating their own.
“We had three goals … so every time we (accomplished one), we would bring them in the check it off the board – ‘Ok, step one is done. Now to step two,’” Allegan co-coach Jen Aldrich said. “I think everyone bought into ‘team’ this year. In previous years, we had a lot of individual successes. This year was different; we were going to win as a team. Nobody talked about individual flight championships. That was a huge key – everybody knew they were important, and everybody knew they had to get points at states.”
The MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” actually tied for the LPD4 championship with Kalamazoo Hackett, after defeating Hackett 6-2 in match play earlier this season and winning the Regional title ahead of the second-place Irish on Oct. 10. (And of course, this is not to take anything away from Hackett’s fine Finals performance. The Irish earned the shared title – their first Finals championship in the sport since 2005 – by tying Allegan with 21 points at the Finals.)
The Tigers’ quest reached back generations. As reported by the Allegan News when Ellis retired, he had led the program to 30 league and 12 Regional titles, 32 MHSAA Finals appearances and 23 top-10 finishes at the year-end event.
But taking those final championship steps last month at Hope College truly took a team effort.
Freshman Eli Festerling gave Allegan a boost at No. 4 singles with the program’s first Finals flight championship since 1990. Noah Festerling and Ben Groth also made the championship round, taking runner-up honors at No. 3 doubles.
The Tigers also got at least one win at six flights and made semifinals at five – although the team entered with only four flights seeded (among the top four) to advance to the second-to-last round. Total, Allegan flights finished 16-7 at the Finals.
One of those semifinalists was No. 1 doubles pair Jack Nahikian and Korbin Sisson – after Nahikian had played No. 4 singles the year before. Vance Muenzer was a Regional runner-up at No. 3 singles this fall after making the jump from playing No. 4 doubles in 2018.
Tyler Aldrich – Jen’s son – was a Regional champ at No. 1 and won two Finals matches while entering unseeded. No. 2 singles Tim Lyon also won a match at the Finals, while Owen Clearwater and Walker Michaels at No. 2 doubles and Chase Williams and David Roark at No. 4 also made semifinals. Aldrich, Eli Festerling, Clearwater/Michaels, Noah Festerling/Groth and Williams/Roark were Regional champs to pace that team title victory.
“I think our strength is our depth. We were strong all the way through,” Jen Aldrich said.
“It’s extra special too for such a small town,” she added, “because Gary and I, we run the summer tennis program so most of these kids we’ve had in the program since they were 3 and 4 years old.”
Aldrich had played for Ellis’ girls program from 1988-91 before going on to play at Western Michigan University, and since coming home has led the girls tennis program for 16 years – her brother Tony Fales actually was Ellis’ assistant for the latter’s final 15 years. Arthur played for Ellis before graduating in 2010 and went on to play at St. Joseph’s College in Indiana.
Arthur kept players loose, especially during big events, providing a boost of fun when the team needed to keep things light. Aldrich was more the disciplinarian, stepping in to crack down when required. They were assisted by Jesse DeBoer, another former Allegan standout who graduated in 2012 and played at Spring Arbor.
“It’s awesome that we took over this year, but deep down we know this is because of Gary Ellis,” Aldrich said. “He built the program. He’s worked with these kids. He got them to this point. So we’ve been celebrating Gary this whole time, because we know it’s because of him and my brother … we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. This really truly was a championship because of Gary Ellis. … This is truly his program.”
And it’s a championship that brought pride to many who have played for Allegan over the years. Ellis’ teams had reached third place at the Finals multiple times, including in 2018.
If this year’s athletes didn’t understand what they accomplished in the moment, they have come to understand over the last month.
“I think probably their families as a whole (know) too,” Aldrich said. “Some of the parents of the players were in the program for Gary – they were players here once – and a lot of alumni (showed support) on our Facebook page and that sort of thing.
“If (our team) didn’t know, they know now.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2019-20
September: Ishpeming Westwood girls tennis - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Tyler Aldrich returns a volley during a No. 1 singles match at the LP Division 4 Finals. (Middle) Allegan's championship-winning team. (Top photo by HighSchoolSportsScene.com; middle photo courtesy of the Allegan boys tennis program.)
Cooksey's HS Success Nearly Unmatched
October 28, 2020
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
As many wins as William Cooksey piled up playing tennis for Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett the past four years, there were probably more times he was asked why he was playing high school tennis in the first place.
One of the country’s top junior players, who is ranked No. 8 in the nation for his age group, the 17-year-old Cooksey also won the under-18 boys single title at the USTA National Indoor Championships in Kansas City last year.
That seems like a recipe for wanting to just train full-time for junior circuit play, but Cooksey stuck with playing high school tennis for a simple reason.
“I got a lot of good memories and experiences, but I think the main thing was team environment,” Cooksey said. “Becoming a leader and adopting that role model role. I just had a bunch of buddies on the team, and it was just a fun time.”
In addition to having fun with friends, Cooksey also ended up leaving a major legacy with his high school accomplishments.
At the MHSAA Division 4 Individual Final on Oct. 21 in Portland, Cooksey won his fourth straight No. 1 singles title, putting him in rare company.
Cooksey became the first player from the Lower Peninsula to win Finals titles at No. 1 singles in any division all four years of high school since Francisco Castillo of Hamtramck did so from 1957-60. Cooksey became the fifth player total in state history to accomplish the feat; Marquette's Alec Olivier (2016-19) was the only other athlete since Castillo to win four Finals championships at the top flight.
Cooksey arrived at Liggett as a scrawny, 5-foot-6 kid who had enough skill to still win the Division 4 championship at No. 1 singles as a freshman in 2017.
He leaves high school as a chiseled, 6-foot-3 phenom who has developed his game further and will embark on a collegiate career at the University of Michigan.
Another mark Cooksey said that high school tennis left on him was that it helped launch him into an elite national junior player.
“I was always short, weak and I wasn’t doing so well in the younger divisions like the 12s and the 14s,” Cooksey said. “I was kind of struggling with it a little bit and getting down on myself. But after winning states my freshman year, I got a bunch of confidence. I started growing and started putting on some muscle. That’s when I started loving playing the game.”
Liggett head coach Mark Sobieralski said Cooksey enjoyed being around high school friends and teammates so much that he would often spend just as much time at practices trying to coach them up as he did playing himself.
“He loved the kids and to be with them,” Sobieralski said. “When he came to practice, he would take like four kids and work with them and then practice on his own. All of his friends, he got to play with and he had fun. That’s the greatest thing about him.”
But now that high school is over, Cooksey is moving at the high speed of his serve toward his future.
It was somewhat of a lost summer on the junior circuit not only because of COVID-19, but also because he was battling a wrist injury.
But Cooksey, who said he likes to pattern his game from professionals Jannik Sinner of Italy and Dennis Shapovalov of Canada, said he is much healthier and raring to get back into junior tournament action.
“My wrist is definitely feeling better,” Cooksey said. “I’m hoping they are going to have national indoors so I can defend my title there. That would be cool.”
No matter what the future holds for Cooksey, he will leave high school tennis knowing he forever made his place in the record books.
“When you see him, he looks like a 5-star,” Sobieralski said.
It’s certainly been hard to argue.
PHOTOS: (Top) University Liggett’s William Cooksey serves during his No. 1 singles match at the MHSAA Team Tennis Finals earlier this month. (Middle) Top to bottom: Liggett playing for No. 1 championships as a sophomore, junior and senior. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)