Wheaton Warrenville's Li adjusts from football
Wheaton Warrenville South's first-singles player Jimmy Li exchanged his tennis shoes for football cleats last fall and he thinks he's much better for the experience.
Li, a junior and two-time state qualifier and, at least for one year, a cornerback, won his season-opening match on Thursday and led the Tigers to a 5-4 victory over host Glenbard South.
As a member of the Wheaton Warrenville South football team, Li got some field time in games, mostly on JV, and he thinks his tennis game benefited from the gridiron experience.
"The biggest thing is my overall concentration," Li said. "If you whiff or miss the ball in tennis, it's always one point. In football, at my position, one small mistake and it's a touchdown for the other team and it could be the game right there. I've learned to focus on every point."
He also thinks football has helped his conditioning and his quickness.
"I think it did good things for me physically as well," Li said. "We did a lot more quickness and speed training than weight lifting. That really helped me with my quickness for the tennis season. My tennis game was a little inconsistent last season. Football has taught me to stay under control and to respect every opponent."
While he loved his time in the defensive backfield, Li will not be able to go out for football next year.
"It was a great experience, but my USTA rankings dropped a lot from not playing tennis for three months," Li said. "So next year I'm going to have to play tennis in the fall."
Wheaton Warrenville coach Bob Cherry sees the difference in Li and the positive effect football has had.
"He bulked up a little in a good way," Cherry said. "He's such a great athlete. I expect him to make it to top 16 and beyond at state. And his leadership is important because we have so many inexperienced players."
Cherry was encouraged by the victories registered on Thursday by his first three doubles team.
"We had some doubles questions answered today," Cherry said. "We're hoping that with experience one or two of our doubles teams can qualify for state."
Glenbard South coach Mark Conrad, whose Raiders also suffered heavy graduation losses, was pleased with his team's effort Thursday, and impressed that they came within a point of knocking off the Tigers, after losing their opening dual meet 5-2 to Glenbard West on Wednesday.
"I'm happy because the kids were down a little after that first loss," Conrad said.
Freshman Kevin Kron, won the first match of his career at fourth singles, while Josh Collins and Kevin Miller, who are also new to competitive tennis, picked up a victory at fourth doubles.
Sam Howard, who was the Western Sun Conference champion at third singles last year, got the victory at second singles and Adam Fleming won a three-setter at third singles.