Her school dropped her tennis program, but Haber happy with how it worked out in the end
Teachers and coaches say it a lot: Being around “the kids” helps keep them young.
It’s because of athletes like tennis player Hanna Haber.
Fresh air embodied, the 2022 Rolling Meadows High School graduate didn’t know me from Adam before our phone conversation earlier this week, after she came off the courts at the Denver Country Club where she’s teaching this summer.
She was light, bright and friendly, easy to laugh yet mature. Our tennis touchstones were generations apart — in January Haber traveled to see Madison Keys win the Australian Open, while she chuckled at the concept of Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” — but her smile and sincerity felt evident across the miles.
There was no sense of, “OK, Boomer.”
Haber seemed to have the moxie to survive and advance. That came in handy after Metropolitan State University of Denver — where this spring she drew Pacific West all-conference honors and at one point was ranked nationally in Division II singles and doubles — in February suddenly announced it would drop women’s and men’s tennis after the season.
“The nonrevenue sports are always the first to go,” said Haber, of Arlington Heights. Scholarships would be cut across the board, the athletes were told, but tennis was the only one of 15 Roadrunners programs to be discontinued.
“It was a perfect, little school,” said Haber, who went 11-5 in singles, 11-7 in doubles as a junior. “Relatively small, a lot of it commuter-based, so most of the people I lived with were my teammates and other athletes.”
Haber was fortunate that within days, Colorado State University coach Mai-Lyn Tran sent her a text message to extend her condolences about the cut and talk about joining the Rams.
Haber visited the university in Fort Collins on March 14 and committed four days later. After a three-week wait to sign the appropriate documents, she officially transferred April 4. She’ll attend orientation Friday.
Colorado State checked lots of boxes. It was a step up to Division I. It offered the possibility of seeing Washington State coach Josh Graetz, her first coach at Metropolitan State.
Mainly, it was a return to the city where she was born, to a pair of former college tennis players.
Before they moved to Arlington Heights when Hanna was 5, her father, Mike, coached at the University of Colorado in Boulder while her mother, Tonya, taught third grade. (Younger brother Nico, a 2025 Rolling Meadows graduate, will play golf at Spring Hill College in Alabama.)
“It was my dream to go back there some day,” Hanna Haber said.
“When one door closes another one opens. I’m excited and nervous for what’s to come. It’s really great that I’ll be close to Denver, because I still have a lot of friends there,” she said.
Despite the doomsday news about the Metropolitan State tennis program being cut, Haber said she focused not only on improving her game for her future at Colorado State, but positively representing Metropolitan wherever they played.
There were sad times, like the final match of the season at the Pacific West Tournament in Arizona. Although the Roadrunners beat Fresno Pacific 4-0 in the consolation bracket, the finality was harsh.
But there were good times, too. At an early season match shortly after the announcement, Haber was trailing 9-4 in a 10-point tiebreaker at Nebraska-Kearney.
Though Metropolitan had gone 0-6 on the day, including Haber in doubles, she looked up and saw the entire Roadrunners men’s and women’s teams cheering for her. She rallied for 7 straight points to win the match.
“I was so grateful to be in that moment that all I wanted to do was win. At that point I knew I could do anything I put my mind to,” Haber said.
“That’s the best thing about the sport of tennis is it teaches you about the mentality that you have.
“At the end of the day, you only rely on yourself and your extremities to win.”
Condolences
Terry McCombs, who coached high school football in Illinois for 50 years, died July 4 in Woodridge, age 78.
He was an assistant coach on John Belskis’ staff for Downers Grove South’s 2001 Class 8A championship team, one of three title teams McCombs coached for. He also contributed to 30 conference titles over his career, which included eight years at East Leyden.
McCombs led Bloomington to the 1991 Class 4A title game as well, a couple years before he came to Downers South. His 15 years at Bloomington and 10 years at Downers South comprised half his career that extended from 1969-2019.
Among other honors, McCombs earned induction into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1996, and the Illinois Athletic Directors Association hall in 2009.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com