Boys Tennis: Hinsdale Central wins 27th state title; Benet duo wins Class 1A doubles championship

PALATINE – 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 – the eighth in his tenure – at the Class 2A state finals May 27 at Palatine. His netters amassed 36 points to 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 May 25, 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 sun-splashed Saturday.

Kotarski, seeded 3-4, lost 6-2, 7-6 (4) to Spurck after downing second-seeded Mitch Sheldon of Hersey 6-4, 7-5 in the semifinals.

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. Kotarski 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 Devils Nation lifted Kotarski in the final, particularly in the second set when he hung with Spurck 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 doubles teams – sophomores Nathan Hernandez and Bodie Teuscher and senior James Theriault and junior Aidan Hernandez – won a combined nine matches at the three-day tourney. Hernandez and Teuscher took third, topping Barrington’s Gabe Mills and Shiv Sastry 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the match for bronze.

The Red Devils’ other singles entrant, sophomore Winston Stangle, reached the quarterfinals and won three of five matches.

Class 1A

Benet sophomores Zach Bobofchak and Hugh Davis made history at the Class 1A state finals at Palatine, netting the program’s first doubles title in impressive fashion.

The top-seeded pair defeated Chicago Latin’s Jake Goldstein and Mark Timensky 6-3, 6-4 in the final, a day after escaping Latin’s Kiyan Alsikafi and Zuhair Alsikafi 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 in the semifinals.

Latin dominated the team portion of the meet. The Romans racked up 44 points, well ahead of runner-up Benet’s 20.

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 own face – 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 in what turned out to be the final match of the state tournament.

Last year at the state meet, Graft placed a program-best third in singles, pacing the Cadets’ program-best ninth-place showing in the team standings.

This year, Graft did not drop a set in five matches on the first two days, including 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0 routs in his first two rounds. Marmion finished 10th in the team standings. All 12 of the Cadets’ points were earned by Graft.

Hinsdale South’s Zeke Bisharat and Ansh Desai finished in seventh/eighth place with a 5-2 doubles mark to better the projection of their 9-16 seed.

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