Wise Choice Nets Championship Return
October 24, 2018
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
There are a lot of emotions winning an MHSAA Finals tennis championship as an underclassmen can produce, but wanting to give up the sport entirely usually is not one of them.
But that’s something that was on the mind of Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood tennis player Lucas Bosch.
Last year as a sophomore, Bosch won the Division 3 flight title at No. 2 singles, which figured to be a great springboard into this season since he was going to take over at No. 1.
However, there was one problem.
Bosch didn’t know whether he wanted to come back at all.
“I actually took three months off just to refocus, see where my head was at and see what my goals for tennis really were,” Bosch said.
But while considering giving up the sport, there was one carrot dangling in front of Bosch that he couldn’t resist.
“I love the team atmosphere of varsity tennis,” Bosch said. “I definitely knew I wanted to come back for that.”
Because of that camaraderie, Bosch said he was excited and ready for the season to start in August, and Saturday was validation that he made the right decision.
Bosch and his teammates were on the court at The Sports Club of West Bloomfield celebrating their fourth straight Division 3 championship, and Bosch himself had another Finals flight medal.
This time it did come at No. 1 singles, as he came back after losing the first set to top rival Nikolas Gruskin of Detroit Country Day, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Bosch entered as the top seed, while Gruskin was seeded second.
The match capped off a season that saw Bosch go 19-8 while playing some of the best competition in the state.
Cranbrook might be Division 3, but it always plays a loaded schedule against Division 1 and 2 powers.
One big win for Bosch came over Gabe Liss of Birmingham Groves, who was a semifinalist at No. 1 singles in the Division 2 tournament.
“I think it was exciting to see all that come together for him,” Cranbrook head coach Steve Herdoiza said. “Obviously the No. 1 singles spot in this area is very difficult. You are playing strong competition every time you are playing a match. He had well above a winning record and was competitive with some of the best guys in the state. It was a great moment for him to play at the level he did.”
During the season, the big adjustment Bosch made to his game had nothing to do with technique or physical components.
It had everything to do with the mental side, and more specifically, just having fun playing the game.
“I feel like in the past years, I would overthink sometimes,” Bosch said. “I was really trying to focus less on my strokes and techniques, and more on having fun and enjoying the atmosphere instead of technical things, because I struggled with that.”
It certainly worked, and now Bosch is looking forward to a busier offseason playing tennis than the last one.
Bosch said he is not certain he wants to play tennis in college, but he is looking forward to playing in more summer tournaments.
He already can’t wait to be out there with his teammates next fall as a senior when Cranbrook will go for its fifth Finals team title in a row.
It’s certainly a different mindset than at this time last year, when Bosch couldn’t even imagine playing, let alone celebrating another Division 3 title and a terrific individual season.
“Definitely not,” he said. “I think over the season, I definitely improved and gained confidence. This moment is surreal."
PHOTO: Cranbrook Kingswood’s Lucas Bosch returns a volley during Friday’s first day of competition at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals at Novi. (Photo courtesy of C&G Newspapers.)
Escanaba Ends Title Wait, Stops Negaunee Title Streak
By
Ryan Stieg
Special for Second Half
June 2, 2021
NEGAUNEE – Heading into Wednesday’s Upper Peninsula Division 1 Finals, the Escanaba boys tennis team hadn’t won a championship in 14 years.
Maybe all it needed was some heavy rain to end that title drought.
The Eskymos battled through two lengthy weather delays to win their first U.P. Finals title since 2007. Escanaba’s win also ended Negaunee’s three-season tenure as champion as the Miners finished with 13 points, six behind the Eskymos.
Escanaba took three of the four doubles finals (Nos. 1, 2 and 3) and Nathan Howes took home the championship at No. 3 singles to lift the team to victory.
“It’s been 2007 since we’ve won this, and that’s a long time,” Escanaba head coach Tom Penegor said. “I’m just proud of these guys. They worked hard. Our two biggest goals throughout the year were to have fun and to get better.
“Normally in past years, Negaunee was always the team to beat. We’d play them early in the year and we’d be somewhat close to them, but by the end of the year, they’d widen the gap. This year, we actually closed the gap. It’s a great accomplishment for these guys because Negaunee, that’s a program that we try to get close to and this year, we did and passed them. So I’m very proud of that. Plus, we only have four seniors, so hopefully we can come back and do some damage again next year. That’s something to shoot for.”
Negaunee got title wins from Will Luke at No. 1 singles and Luke Syrjala at No. 2, while also getting the victory at No. 4 doubles to keep pace with the Eskymos. However, those just weren’t enough to overtake them.
Even though Negaunee’s reign at the top came to an end, Miners head coach Kyle Saari was proud of how his team of newcomers performed.
“If you look at it, we entered this year, we had 10 new kids in the varsity lineup and this is kind of a big unknown,” he said. “When you end up entering the UPs, it’s kind of seeing and kind of trying to predict how they will respond on this day. That includes how do they respond to a 1 or 2 seed, how do they respond if they have a first-round match. And I think kind of as a whole, what it turned into for us today, it was just pretty much a learning experience, how to handle that down time.
“If you kind of look at the day as a whole, Escanaba had a terrific day; hats off to them. They responded and they had a really strong showing at 3 singles today, at 4 singles. With them being able to get through the finals into those flights, that really kind of set the table for them to be successful later in the day.”
Menominee finished third with 10 points and won the last match of the day as Danny Birch defeated Escanaba’s Connor Smale in a three-set thriller (6-4, 2-6, 6-2) at No. 4 singles. Marquette took fourth with five points, followed by Gladstone with two and Kingsford with one.
PHOTOS: Escanaba’s Nathan Howes returns a serve during his No. 3 singles match Wednesday in Negaunee. He went on to win the match and the flight. (Middle) The Miners’ Will Luke serves during a No. 1 singles match. He finished the season undefeated. (Photos by Ryan Stieg.)