Hinsdale Central wins 27th state title; Benet duo wins Class 1A doubles championship
The equivalent of the Pittsburgh Steelers in Illinois high school boys tennis is the Hinsdale Central Red Devils.
Each sports organization has enjoyed decades of success under a handful of coaches.
The NFL team has employed only three head coaches in its history.
So has the boys tennis power from the West Suburban Conference. Clare Riessen took the reins first at Hinsdale Central, followed by Jay Kramer and John Naisbitt.
Naisbitt guided Hinsdale Central to its 27th state championship - eighth in his tenure - Saturday at the Class 2A tournament at Palatine. His netters amassed 36 points to state-runner-up New Trier's 30.
Fremd finished third with 29 points.
"Three coaches since World War II - that's it, that's all we've had," Naisbitt said of the number of Hinsdale Central's court bosses in boys tennis. "We like to play our best tennis at this meet every season. It helps having continuity. It also has something to do with culture and expectations."
Hinsdale Central won all 12 of its matches on Thursday, the first day of the meet, to separate itself comfortably from the rest of the field. Lefty junior Alex Kotarski paced the Red Devils, finishing runner-up in singles to Fremd junior and top-seeded Andrew Spurck on a gusty, sun-splashed Saturday.
Kotarski, seeded 3-4, lost 6-2, 7-6 (4) to Spurck, a day after downing second-seeded Mitch Sheldon of Hersey 6-4, 7-5 in a semifinal.
Against the athletic, talented Spurck - the son of the former Jennifer Nasser, who won the 1990 state singles title as a member of Hersey's girls tennis squad - Kotarski was trailing 6-2, 2-0 when he started to find his groove. The lively Red Devil won three consecutive games and later held leads of 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5.
Spurck (23-1) did not lose any of his service points en route to winning the tiebreaker 7-4.
"Alex had a great tournament," Naisbitt said. "His win in the semi was huge. He's a big hitter, and he did a good job creating angles for himself to hit big winners."
Crowd support from Red Devil Nation lifted Kotarski in the final, particularly in the second set when he hung with the quick Viking and smacked either clean winners or pinpoint shots from both wings.
"I worked the crowd. The crowd got loud," Kotarski said. "My supporters helped me during my late push.
"Andrew is a great player," he added. "He doesn't miss much and he's strong mentally."
Kotarski's one-word reaction to his state runner-up showing was, "Surprising," a word Naisbitt would never utter about his club at this time of the season.
Hinsdale Central's pair of doubles teams - sophomores Nathan Hernandez/Bodie Teuscher and senior James Theriault/junior Aidan Hernandez - won a combined nine matches at the three-day tourney. Hernandez/Teuscher took third, topping Barrington's Gabe Mills/Shiv Sastry 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the match for bronze Saturday morning.
The Red Devils' other singles entrant, sophomore Winston Stangle, reached a quarterfinal and won three of five matches.
Waubonsie Valley finished in a tie for 10th place (12 points) with Lyons. Waubonsie's Sid Javeri/Kai Sun earned a 9-16 seed and advanced to a quarterfinal in the back draw.
Highland Park's Evan Glebov/Blake Gold captured the Class 2A doubles title.
Class 1A:
Benet sophomores Zach Bobofchak and Hugh Davis made history at Saturday's Class 1A boys tennis meet at Palatine, netting the program's first doubles title in impressive fashion.
The top-seeded pair defeated Chicago Latin's Jake Goldstein/Mark Timensky 6-3, 6-4 in the final, a day after escaping Latin's Kiyan Alsikafi/Zuhair Alsikafi 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 semifinal.
Latin dominated the team portion of the meet despite the setbacks at the rackets of Bobofchak/Davis. The Romans racked up 44 points, well ahead of runner-up Benet's 20.
But Latin fielded the maximum four state entrants to Benet's two. Redwings sophomore Patrick Burke, seeded 9-16, went 4-2 in singles, winning twice in the back draw to secure a consolation-quarterfinal matchup.
"We stayed aggressive on the court this weekend," said Davis, who, like Bobofchak, stands 6-foot-2. "It also helped that we're good friends off the court."
Davis' slice and kick serves resulted in quick points in the final, as did Bobofchak's flat serves. Their finishes at the net were of the emphatic variety.
"It was huge, being able to pull this off," Davis said. "Taking second as a team made the weekend even better.
"We had a special team."
Benet coach Michael Hand lauded his trio for choosing a fine time to shine.
"They all showed up and showed grit," he said.
Marmion sophomore Benedict Graft supplanted a familiar face - his - in Cadets boys tennis history, finishing runner-up in singles to top-seeded Nicholas Patrick of Rock Island Alleman.
Graft, seeded second, lost 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-3 to the Pioneer in what turned out to be the final match of the state tournament. He placed a then-program-best third in singles at last spring's state meet, pacing the Cadets' program-best ninth-place showing in the team standings.
On Thursday and Friday, Graft did not drop a set in five matches, including 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0 routs in his first two rounds. Marmion finished 10th in the team standings, as all 12 of the Cadets' points were earned by Graft.
Hinsdale South's Zeke Bisharat/Ansh Desai, meanwhile, finished in seventh/eighth place with a 5-2 doubles mark to better the projection of their 9-16 seed.
Oh (yes), Henry:
Wheaton North senior Henry Ros was named recipient of the Class 2A Tom Pitchford Sportsmanship Award but was not available Saturday to hear applause at Palatine. He settled for that clamor at Wheaton North's graduation ceremony.