Fearless Approach, Memorable Finish
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 18, 2012
Billy Heckman has known Davis Crocker for a while. Sharing a corner of Michigan’s tennis community, they’ve crossed paths at USTA tournaments, played each other once two winters ago, and were teammates on a junior Davis Cup team. They plan on hitting together this winter.
And to be honest, Heckman remembers being a little afraid of Davis’ game – the big serve and big volleys that helped the Kalamazoo Loy Norrix senior win the MHSAA Division 2 championship at No. 1 singles last season.
But Heckman felt no fear at last week’s Regional at Portage Northern.
“I was thinking to myself, this is my senior year and I want to end it with a bang,” Heckman said.
The Portage Central senior has two more days left in his high school career. But it’s fair to say that regardless of what happens at this weekend’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals in Holly, Heckman’s straight-set win over Crocker in the Regional Final will be a memorable moment he’ll hold onto forever.
Heckman receives a Second Half High 5 this week after downing Crocker 7-6 (5), 6-1. The loss was Crocker’s first, against 26 wins, and more or less guaranteed Heckman the top seed this weekend.
“It felt great because it was my last Regional,” Heckman said. “No matter what happens at states, I won the Regional and he can’t take that away from me.”
Heckman is 25-4 this season – although three of those losses came when a back injury forced him into a default and two forfeits. The other loss came to Ann Arbor Huron’s Jack Peterson, the fourth-seeded No. 1 singles player in Division 1.
An experience and an evolution helped set Heckman up to finish his high school career on top. A year ago, he faced Midland Dow’s Jonathan Gurnee in the MHSAA championship match at No. 2 singles. Heckman had beaten Gurnee badly earlier that season, 6-0, 6-0, but at the Finals ended up becoming the final high school win for the player with the most for a career according to the MHSAA record book.
“At first I was just devastated. I’d beaten him 0, 0 a month before, and there was no way I was going to lose,” Heckman remembered. “I was the one seed, and I was going in with a lot of confidence.
“Not to take anything away from him, but that day I just played really badly. It made me want to work harder, especially for high school season. You can’t go in knowing you’re going to win.”
But a player can prepare. And doing so led to a big jump in Heckman’s evolution this summer.
He admits he was like most freshmen and sophomores, immature, joking around too much and “just being annoying.” He’s always had talent; he’s played No. 3 singles or higher all four years for one of the state’s top programs. But after last season, he decided it was time to put the team first.
A busy two months of running tennis tournaments plus a death in the family kept Portage Central coach Peter Militzer from being as involved as usual with the team’s traditional summer hitting workouts. So Heckman volunteered to organize, started a Facebook group to get the word out, and soon had 20-25 players training three times a week. During summers past, that number was usually 8-10.
“JV kids started coming, and there were more kids in the group than at any of the clubs around here,” Heckman said.
“I like to think of myself as (a leader). I just like especially when people can see results, and I contributed toward that.”
He saw plenty in his game as well. ITA tournaments during the summer in Kalamazoo, Bloomington, Ind., and Columbus, Ohio, allowed him opportunities to face bigger, older competitors.
Heckman also grew the last two years – finally, and in a giant burst. Militzer said Heckman was the size of a 10-year-old until he was nearly 16. More size meant power and the ability to play more of an offensive game.
Militzer calls Heckman “unbelievably quick” and one of the smartest tennis players he’s coached – pretty powerful words considering Militzer has coached two MHSAA championship teams.
“I call him a tennis addict. He’s passionate about the game, and of all the boys I’ve coached, he’s got the best tennis IQ,” Militzer said. “On the court, he senses what opponents do not like to do and repeatedly makes them do that. He makes them hit shots they don’t want to hit.”
Heckman was up 5-4 in the first set against Crocker, but pulled back on his attack. He realized quickly he shouldn’t have, and didn’t hold back the rest of the match.
And he surely won’t if they meet again this weekend.
“I didn’t think I’d win the first set, honestly. (But) I knew right from the beginning of the second set that I had to get up from the beginning and not give him (a chance to come back),” Heckman said.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll see him at the Finals again. I’m expecting it.”
PHOTO: Portage Central's Billy Heckman returns a shot during last season's Division 2 Final at No. 2 singles against Midland Dow's Jonathan Gurnee.
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.