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.
Champion Coaches Lead Title Contender
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
September 21, 2015
PORTAGE — Sometimes fate works in strange ways.
And the Portage Central boys tennis team is benefiting from some very good fate – in this case, a chance meeting between coaches Peter Militzer and Erik Anderson.
Both have won Lower Peninsula Division 2 championships, but with different teams. Militzer has two with Portage Central and Anderson two with East Lansing.
They first met at the MHSAA Finals in 2008, which East Lansing won.
“We helped him win it,” said Militzer, whose team tied for fourth that year. “He came up and thanked me because my singles players beat singles players from Rochester Adams that propelled him to the title.”
Six years later, this could be the season the two win a championship together.
Portage Central is ranked No. 1 this week in the coaches association Lower Peninsula Division 2 poll. The Mustangs are loaded with talented veterans and depth at both singles and doubles – and on the coaching staff as well.
The year before their chance meeting, in 2007, Militzer and Anderson both won but didn’t share MHSAA titles. Portage Central won in the spring and East Lansing in the fall, as Lower Peninsula boys tennis made the transition from spring to fall over that calendar year.
After the 2008 Final, fate brought the two coaches together again when Anderson took a position with the Greater Kalamazoo Area YMCA, where he is now director of tennis operations. Militzer is director of healthy living and membership.
Anderson, who also coached two years at DeWitt, said it’s not only the sport but the kids who keep him motivated to coach high school.
“Tennis is a sport that’s individual, and in high school you can make it a team sport,” he said. “That’s what’s really unique about tennis. A lot of people look at it as an individual sport, and it’s a way to bring a group of guys together and realize that what you do also affects somebody else within the team.
“It also gets them ready for college if they’re looking to go on to college because it becomes more team aspect there, too.”
Militzer, who has coached the Mustangs for 23 years, asked if Anderson would be interested in co-coaching at Portage Central. After a year of commuting from Kalamazoo to East Lansing to continue coaching the Trojans, Anderson jumped at the chance to make the switch.
They also have a junior varsity coach with a ton of experience: Nancy Martin is a former Portage Northern coach.
“Between Nancy, Erik and myself, we all have such different coaching styles that when we get to our big tournaments we can mix or match depending on the player’s needs, their mental state at the time, how the match is going,” Militzer said.
“I’m more the mental coach, trying to keep them in a positive state of mind. Nancy is a great tactical coach. She’ll see the weakness in the other player right off the bat. She does that as well as anyone in the state. Erik is a blend of those two and he’s really a great motivator.”
One advantage for the team, or disadvantage depending on a player’s perspective, is that Militzer also is an umpire for the USTA Boys 18-16 National Championships, tournaments at the Y and some ITA competition for Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College.
“As tennis coaches, we are the officials at the match,” he said. “Regionals and State, there are USTA officials so then we back off.
“I can say that I am definitely harder on our own players than I am on the other teams. So if you’re an opponent and you say something, I’ll tell you know not to do it. But our own player, the team’s running the second time it happens.”
Portage Central has six seniors, but just one, Ben Orwin, has cracked the singles lineup – and that’s not because they’re stacking the doubles deck.
Two singles players, sophomore Bill Duo and freshman Lucas Guy, compete in USTA events outside the high school season.
At Portage Central, Duo is competing at No. 1 for the second year and Guy at No. 3. Sophomore Camilo Bautista rounds out the singles lineup.
“Our teams have always done best when we’ve had good leadership, and we have three captains and neither Duo or Guy are captains,” Militzer said. “Because of their experience, players will look up to them anyway, so it’s one more layer of leadership.”
Orwin, senior Sahil Tandon and junior Cameron Raedy are team captains.
Duo’s record last year was 27-5 with four of those losses to Portage Northern the-senior Stew Sell: dual, conference, regionals and MHSAA Finals. The other was to Grosse Pointe South’s Nick Paolucci. So far this year, Duo is undefeated.
“Bill’s USTA experience is invaluable,” Militzer said. “He’s a leader even though he’s a sophomore. He’s just a great talent. Everyone looks up to him.
“I think playing USTA helps with his nerves a little bit when he plays big players because he’s seen them before.”
Duo said enjoys the team aspect of high school tennis.
“It really feels nice to be part of this team. part of this community and be surrounded by friends,” he said. “With high school they make things a lot more fun. You have all your teammates there supporting you. They have food here, which is a huge plus. It’s just immeasurable.
“I’d love to help our team get a state title. I’d love to be a supporting teammate, play my best out there, have fun and have all my teammates have fun and come together as a team in the end and just have a blast.”
Said Orwin: “Duo’s a really strong player. He helps a lot. Just because he’s a sophomore doesn’t mean he’s not experienced. He’s played a lot of tennis in his life.”
Orwin made it to the finals at No. 2 singles last year before losing to Midland Dow’s Colin Angell.
“Ben is a three-year captain, which is pretty unusual,” Militzer said. “He leads by example. He’s not very loud but his game speaks for itself. He’s a really good on-court leader.”
When Orwin was asked what it would take to beat Duo in a challenge match, Bautista jumped in, laughing, “ A whole lot of praying.”
Guy said he always hoped to play high school tennis because he also enjoys team events.
“The team atmosphere takes the pressure off a little bit,” he said. Compared to USTA events, “The intensity level is a little less with a team as far as being pressured.”
“Lucas is going to be a great player,” Militzer said. “Even though he’s only a freshman, he’s very, very good right now. He’s a nationally ranked player in (USTA boys) 14s. He’s only 13 but he’s big.”
Bautista said he has one regret from last year.
“I was an alternate on varsity,” he said. “Last year, I tried out for singles, but I didn’t make it because Joey Liu took the 4 singles spot. I didn’t want to play doubles so I went down to JV.
“I’ve never been a big doubles fan, but now that I look back, I regret it. I would have rather been on the varsity team and help them do maybe better.”
Militzer said Bautista is a “great No. 4 player.”
“Camilo battles,” he said. “He doesn’t really have any weaknesses and that’s unusual at 4 singles. He barely lost out on No. 4 singles last year.”
With five seniors, the doubles lineup is filled with experience, and there is at least one senior in each pairing.
Senior Kento Hirakawa and Raedy play at No. 1.
“Cameron played 1 doubles last year and lost in the semis,” Militzer said. “He and Kento haven’t lost to anyone in Division 2 this year. They have a couple Division 1 losses. They’re a very, very good team.”
The No. 2 duo of Liu, a senior, and Tandon have just one loss. Senior Elijah Lentz and sophomore Cody Lewis play at No. 3, and senior Kyle Wang and junior Andrew Beering at No. 4.
Orwin said he would like nothing better than to end his high school career with a team championship. The Mustangs finished his freshman and junior seasons in third place in Lower Peninsula Division 2, sandwiched around an eighth place when he was a sophomore.
“We’ve got to come together as a team when it really counts,” he said. “To go out with a championship would be amazing.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She continues to freelance for MLive.com covering mainly Kalamazoo Wings hockey and can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Portage Central No. 1 singles player Bill Duo prepares to return a shot during a recent workout. (Middle) Peter Militzer, left, and Erik Anderson. (Below) No. 2 singles player Ben Orwin prepares to connect. (Photos by Pam Shebest.)