Chargers 'Family' Runs Streak to 5
October 19, 2013
By Greg Chrapek
Special to Second Half
Many teams talk about their family atmosphere. The Midland Dow boys tennis team lives it.
Dow’s family approach was on display at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals on Friday and Saturday at Hope College in Holland as the Chargers aimed for a fifth consecutive team title. After the final ball was served Saturday afternoon, Dow players had captured six of eight flights en route to a dominating performance.
Dow claimed the title in impressive fashion as along with six champions it had players in seven of eight flight finals. Dow totaled 37 points, 13 more than second-place Detroit U-D Jesuit; while third-place Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern scored 23 points.
“The five straight titles is not about anything the coach does,” Midland Dow coach Terry Schwartzkopf said. “We do it as a community. The players, the coaches, the parents, we are all invested in each other.
“These guys are back in my room after graduation. They are friends outside of school. They even have their own fantasy football league. The parents all know each other. That is the key to our success.”
The Chargers also have some outstanding individuals. Among the best this season was a pair of seniors who each won their fourth individual title along with being part of four title teams. Julian Guerra capped his career by winning at No. 2 singles while Jason Chang teamed up with Vikram Shanker to win at No. 1 doubles.
Chang wrapped up his career by setting a career record for wins by a doubles player with 138. His partner, Shanker, finished second on the career doubles victory list with 132.
Chang and Shanker teamed up to defeat Timmy Hoffman and Marty Nagle from U-D Jesuit in two sets.
While Chang was pleased with the wins record, capturing a fourth straight team title was the main thought on his mind.
“My primary goal was for our team to win states,” Chang said. “This (win record) was just something that came along with it. The state title feels great. It is something we have been working for.”
Shanker, Chang’s partner, was in total agreement.
“It’s just amazing,” Shanker said. “We are great friends and to go out with another state championship is great. As seniors you want to go out on top.”
Shanker also pointed to the team’s family atmosphere as being key to the fifth straight title.
“We are just one big family,” Shanker said. “We train together the year round. Everyone turned it on this weekend. Our No. 3 doubles team didn’t have a perfect season but they won an amazing match.”
Dow’s No. 3 doubles team was made up of Seamus Bartlett and Daniel Mango and came into the tournament seeded second. Bartlett and Mango progressed to the final where they defeated Forest Hills Northern’s Ryan Roach and Daiki Adachi in three sets.
“It was just incredible,” Mango said. “We won the first set then we lost the second set. We got down in the third set but then we pulled through at the end. Our coach just gave us words of encouragement. We knew what we had to do. We gave it our all and we did it.”
“It just feels amazing,” Bartlett said. “We just kept our focus and played with great intensity.”
At No. 2 doubles Dow’s team of Patrick Eschbach and Colin Angell rolled to victory with a 6-0, 6-1 win against Parneet Gogireddy and Alex Winks of Forest Hills Northern.
“We just have tremendous chemistry,” Angell said. “We’ve only been a team for one year but we work well together.”
For Eschbach is was the second time he won a doubles title.
“Last year I did it at No. 3 doubles,” Eschbach said. “It was amazing to repeat.”
The only doubles title not won by Dow came at No. 4. That was where a pair of neighboring rivals from Forest Hills in suburban Grand Rapids hooked up with the title on the line.
The Forest Hills Central team of Mitch Timyan and Humzah Azeem defeated the Forest Hills Northern team of Nick Parente and Matt Zhao 6-4, 6-3.
“It feels real great,” Azeem said. “I’m just ecstatic. I’m not sure how to feel right now.”
The two teams were meeting for a fourth time this year with the Central duo having won two of the previous three matches.
“We lost at home to them about a month ago,” Azeem said. “Our intensity level just escalated from there.”
It was a first title for Timyan but he was not the first member of his family to win his final match.
“It feels amazing,” Timyan said. “It’s crazy because I saw my brother Austin win one four years ago. We just played our best and were at the top of our game.”
In singles action few players have been at the top of their games more than Kalamazoo Loy Norrix senior Davis Crocker, who captured his third straight title at No. 1 singles. Crocker defeated Dow sophomore William Kirkman 6-3, 6-1.
“This feels just as good as the first one,” Crocker said. “My goal the whole year was to win the third one. It’s just surreal. When I started I never expected to win one. To win a third one is just out of this world.”
For Guerra of Dow, he ended his career with four MHSAA titles to his credit. Guerra won the No. 2 singles title in two sets against Thomas Sheeren of U-D Jesuit. Guerra won titles at No. 4 singles as a freshman and sophomore and last year he won at No. 3 singles.
“It’s just great,” Guerra said. “I also want to thank my teammates. I couldn’t have achieved it without them.
“All the hard work paid off. It was a lot harder this year because I moved up to No. 2 singles and had to play a lot stronger players this year.”
At No. 4 singles, Dow sophomore Michael Szabo won his second straight title. Szabo defeated Freddy Heegan of U-D Jesuit in two sets.
“It’s a great feeling,” Szabo said. “Just being able to help our team win is a great feeling. It means a lot to win five titles in a row, and it means we have to keep working hard to make it six.”
Taking part in his first Finals was Dow freshman Varun Shanker at No. 3 singles. Shanker defeated Will Christian of Forest Hills Northern in two sets to claim his crown.
“I can’t say enough about the Dow program,” Shanker said. “It was my dream to play tennis for Dow and help them win a state title. To win five in a row is awesome. To play for a program like Dow with such high expectations is a great experience.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Dow No. 1 doubles pair Jason Chang (left) and Vikram Shanker exchange a congratulatory shake during Saturday's Final. (Middle) Dow's Julian Guerra prepares to return a volley on his way to winning the No. 2 singles title. (Click to see more from High School Sports Scene.)
No Just-Miss This Time: Groves Breaks Through with 1st Finals Win
By
Greg Chrapek
Special for Second Half
October 16, 2021
HOLLAND – This year’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Boys Tennis Finals had a new look.
Along with the return to their traditional format after last year’s COVID-driven changes, the tournament featured a new champion, several new competing schools and some brand new names to the Division 2 tennis scene.
Birmingham Groves, a five-time Finals runner-up, broke through and claimed the first boys tennis team title in school history. Groves finished the two-day tournament Saturday with 27 points to edge a familiar name, two-time reigning Division 2 champion Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, by one point. Last year’s Division 1 champion, Okemos, had moved into Division 2 this season and tied for third place with Midland Dow as both teams totaled 20 points.
For Groves and coach Dave Farmer, the title meant the end of a chase lasting a decade.
“I’ve been coaching here since 2010 and we’ve had several second and third-place finishes,” Farmer said. “This one is very special because it’s the first high school title I’ve ever won. I won three titles at Eastern Michigan University, but this is my first in 12 years of coaching high school tennis.
“We have a veteran team this year, and that is a big reason why we won it. We had great senior leadership and a lot of good juniors as well.”
Groves came into the tournament with nine seniors on the team and seven in the starting lineup. The Falcons were paced by their singles lineup but received big efforts from doubles down the stretch.
“We have a good group of singles players that carried us for the bulk of the year,” Farmer said. “Our doubles teams really picked it up in the tournament and really helped solidify the team.”
The Falcons also had a talented freshman in the singles lineup, and he made his high school Finals debut in a big way. Groves freshman Michael Liss won the No. 3 singles title as he defeated Will Seymour of Detroit U-D Jesuit 6-4, 6-3.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” Liss said. “I just tried to stay calm and not get upset at anything at all. I feel that as a team we were a cohesive unit, and we all pushed each other to get better. I’m just a freshman, but I know we’ve been really close to winning it as a team. We’ve finished second and third a lot so we really wanted to win it this year.”
Liss was not the only freshman to win an individual flight championship. Okemos freshman Suchir Nagisetty arrived on the Finals stage in a big way as well as he defeated Andrew Williams of Mattawan 7-5, 6-1, to clinch at No. 4 singles.
The win was especially meaningful for Nagisetty as he followed in the footsteps of his older brother Sid who won an individual flight title during his freshman season at Okemos in 2017. Sid was in attendance cheering and supporting his brother and has played his own role in Suchir’s development as a player.
“My brother coached me and trained me this summer,” Suchir said. “I wanted to follow in his footsteps and win a state title in my freshman year. It is something I’ve thought about for a long time. There is some pressure, but once you start playing the match your love of tennis takes over and you just concentrate on playing the game. Winning the title feels great, and it’s nice to have something in common I can share with my brother.”
A new name to Division 2 tennis but a familiar face on the state scene, Okemos sophomore Ethan Portnoy, came away with the No. 1 singles championship. Portnoy, who played doubles last season, moved up to No. 1 singles and defeated Connor Stafford of Grosse Pointe South 6-3, 6-4.
Like Nagisetty, Portnoy had a good example of what it takes to win an individual championship under his own roof as his older brother Josh Portnoy was a two-time Finals flight champion during his high school career at Okemos.
“It’s really cool to follow in my older brother’s footsteps,” Portnoy said. “I had a lot of confidence that I could do it. I played a lot of USTA (United States Tennis Association) tournaments in the summer and had a lot of tough matches, and I knew I could bring that experience to high school tennis.”
At No. 2 singles, senior Owen Goodrich of Forest Hills Northern wrapped up his career in a memorable way by outlasting Okemos senior George Fan in a grueling, three-set struggle 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
“I just took it one point at a time,” Goodrich said. “I’ve played him before, and I knew it was going to be a tough match. I knew he’s a great player, but he’s not invincible.”
Winning his final match as a senior was a fitting way to go out for Goodrich, who lost in the final at No. 4 singles as a freshman.
“I lost in the state finals to a player from Okemos as a freshman,” Goodrich said. “Now I win my final match in the state finals against a player from Okemos. I couldn’t ask for a better way to finish my senior year. It’s amazing.”
In doubles competition, winners came from four schools.
Grosse Pointe South, in Division 2 for the first time after having played in Division 1 for years, finished in a tie for sixth place and was led by seniors Blake Discher and Alex Prather. Discher and Prather teamed up to stop Thomas Ladwein and Aaron Li of Midland Dow 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1 doubles.
“We played really good,” Prather said. “It was one of our best days ever. This is the second year that we’ve played as partners, and we do a great job of supporting each other.”
The duo was determined to bring home a title for South, and even though they believed they could win, there was an element of awe when it was over.
“I thought we could take it with how much we put into it,” Discher said, “but in the end we were kind of shocked that we actually did it.”
The Jesuit No. 4 doubles team of Sam Owens and Stephen Cibulas won a tough struggle against Andrew Weitzman and Gabe Klein of Groves 7-5, 7-6 (2). The win was made even harder considering the duo had just spent plenty of energy getting past a tough Forest Hills Northern team in the semifinal round.
“We had a real tough match with Forest Hills Northern, and it drained a lot of our energy,” Owens said. “We had to be more mentally tough in this match. They were up 4-1 in the second half so we had to come back to win it.”
“We just played with more energy,” Cibulas added. “It was all about the energy. We also support each other really well.”
At No. 2 doubles, the Forest Hills Northern duo of Aaryan Singh and Anderson Halland were pushed to the limit before claiming a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, victory against Dylan Wolf and Alexandras Abarius of Groves.
Birmingham Seaholm, which tied for sixth with Grosse Pointe South, was paced by its No. 3 doubles team of Alex George and Alex Lewis. The Seaholm duo won the No. 3 doubles title by stopping Kyle Wang and Joey Lamberg of Forest Hills Northern 6-3, 6-3.
PHOTOS (Top) Birmingham Groves' Michael Liss returns a volley Saturday during his run to the No. 3 singles championship. (Middle) Okemos' Ethan Portnoy drives a shot during a No. 1 singles match. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)