Grayslake North’s Campanile courts the right kind of exit
Shortly after Grayslake North senior Nate Campanile was told in April he would not be able to play tennis for a while, he got his hands on some golf clubs.
Something was wrong with the right-handed Knight’s right shoulder. A doctor looking for an answer had injected dye in his shoulder, but the results came back inconclusive. Swinging a tennis racket would make the shoulder worse for the two-time state qualifier.
Swinging a golf club would be his outlet.
“He can drive a golf ball 300 yards no problem,” said Nate’s father, Mark Campanile. “Amazing.”
But Nate Campanile wanted more than anything to drive down-the-line winners on tennis courts. Par for him was netting victories in straight sets.
“The toughest part of being sidelined and rehabbing this spring was watching my team compete in close duals,” said Campinale. “I wanted so badly to be out there.”
Campanile finally got the green light to return to green courts in mid-May, right before last weekend’s sectionals. The Knight finished third in singles at the Lakes boys tennis sectional. He would get to end his prep career where he deserved to be — at the state meet.
Campanile beat Peoria Notre Dame’s Andrew Whalen 6-3, 6-0 in a first-rounder at state Thursday morning at Hersey. Waiting for him in the second round was top-seeded Jason Brown of Deerfield. Yale-bound Brown was too sharp, while Wisconsin-Whitewater-bound Campanile was game but just not tournament-tough enough. Brown triumphed 6-0, 6-2.
Campanile (4-2 at state last spring) extended his season by at least another day when he won a pair of straight-set matches in the back draw.
“My son missed tennis — really missed it,” said Mark Campanile.
Dad Campanile, by the way, strings rackets and teaches tennis for a living. Three of the rackets he strung before the state meet belong to none other than … Jason Brown.
Two of Stevenson’s four state entrants, meanwhile, each strung together three consecutive victories Thursday to reach the Round of 16. Patriots junior Jeremy Bush, seeded 5-8, overwhelmed his first two opponents 6-0, 6-0 and then routed Sandburg’s Eric Pontow 6-1, 6-0 in sunny, humid, gusty conditions at Hoffman Estates.
“Jeremy was all business; he came focused, ready to go,” said Stevenson assistant Jeff Zanchelli, a 2003 Stevenson graduate who reached a state doubles quarterfinal with Jon Levy in ’02. “He used good racket speed and hit high-percentage shots. That got him in a rhythm and he did such a good job of moving his opponents side to side.”
Stevenson sophomore Andrew Komarov/freshman Colin Harvey, seeded 9-16 in doubles, didn’t a drop a set at Palatine to set up fourth-round matchup this morning with second-seeded Zacko Brint/Danny Wynbrandt of Highland Park. Komarov/Harvey downed Libertyville’s Jack Springgate/Eric Klein 6-1, 6-0 in the third round.
The Pats tandem of senior Dennis Kontorovich/Adam Maryniuk reached the third round in the doubles draw, while Stevenson senior Brian Kim went 1-2 in singles.
Stevenson was sitting fifth (17 points) in the team standings, 3 points behind fourth-place Oak Park-River Forest. Hinsdale Central led the field with 24 points after Day 1, while New Trier and Lake Forest were tied for second with 22 points apiece.
For years Stevenson coach Tom Stanhope has made sure his state qualifiers were ready for the stifling weather conditions like Thursday’s. About six years ago he huddled with an athletic trainer at the school and came up with a checklist.
“Two things on the list are hydration and diet — both are so important in the days leading up to state,” said Stanhope. “The state meet is a three-day grind; I want my guys prepared for it and not just tennis-wise. (Wednesday) I told them if they didn’t have bottles of water with them in their classes, I’d make them run an extra lap in practice. I even went to some of their classes to make sure I saw bottles on their desks.
“They all passed,” he added.
Warren junior Kristiyan Trukov, seeded 9-16, nearly passed a grueling court test against 17-32 seed Scott Christian of Lake Forest at Hoffman Estates in the third round. Trukov, the No. 1 singles champ at the North Suburban Conference meet earlier this month, won the first 6-3 and lost the second by the same score. The Blue Devil then went up 3-0 in the final set.
“At that point I was thinking, ‘He has me,’” said Christian, a sophomore. “He came out firing in that third set.”
But early in the fourth game a cramp in Trukov’s right calf triggered a couple of injury timeouts. A hobbled Trukov valiantly continued to play before bowing 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to the aggressive Scout, who will meet Bush in a fourth-rounder this morning.
Warren’s Matt Matheny/Samuel Gudeman split four doubles matches at Fremd on Thursday.
Libertyville freshman Ben VanDixhorn won three consecutive matches in the back draw after a 6-4, 7-5 first-round loss to Rockford Guilford’s Matt Papke at Hoffman Estates. The lefty admitted he struggled with the unremitting wind in his first match.
“I figured it out the rest of the day,” the Wildcat said.
VanDixhorn looked weary — and pleased — as he walked toward the site’s scorer’s table after his long day.
“Right now I kind of feel achy all over,” he said with a tired smile.
But he would have gladly played a few more sets if a tournament official had told him to do so.
“He loves this,” Libertyville coach Dan Kiernan said during the final game of VanDixhorn’s final match on Thursday, a 6-0, 6-2 defeat of Morton junior Calen Crim. “This is what he’s all about. He lives for days like this.”
Vernon Hills junior Ismail Kadyrov, seeded 17-32, won twice in the main draw at Rolling Meadows before a 6-3, 6-0 loss to 5-8 seed Josh Cogan of Batavia.
Friday’s fourth-round singles matches in the championship draw will be played at Hersey at 9 a.m., while the fourth-round doubles matches will be staged at Buffalo Grove at 9 a.m.