Area coaches excited about all five Stark County players getting started in OHSAA Division I public high school girls tennis tournamentincluding a historic Perry star.
Hoover juniors Addison Sheil and Ema Papcke advanced as district double finalist.
Sophomore Ashley Helle and senior Isha Nagajothi of Jackson also advanced in doubles with a fourth-place finish.
Perry junior Haylee Fearon is the county’s only state representative in singles based on a fourth-place finish in district. Fearon is the first singles state qualifier in Perry girls tennis history. One Perry player, Scott Pukys in 1988, reached the state tournament in singles on the boys side.
Sheil and Fearon have established themselves as the county’s best players in a season which now ends at the state tournament at College of WoosterThursday and Friday.
At the recent Federal League tournament, Sheil beat Fearon in straight sets in the singles final, a week after needing three sets to beat Fearon in a regular season bout.
First-year Hoover head coach Kay McHolm said Sheil is “definitely the best player in Stark County,” a view supported by the fact that Sheil’s only regular season loss was against senior Ava Mathur, a Wooster senior who competed in the state tournament in singles. .
Fearon as an emerging force.
“(Fearon) was a good player last year and she’s definitely improved,” McHolm said. “She is very focused, she has excellent groundstrokes and great knowledge of the court.”
In the Federal League singles tournament, Fearon outlasted Helle in a three-set semi-final.
Kevin Knoch, who has coached the Perry boys for 19 years and the Perry girls for 18 years, is excited to see Fearon make school history.
“She was good as a freshman and has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two years,” Knoch said. “Coming from Perry’s background and hard-working, blue-collar mentality, she applied that to her tennis.
“If you look at her, you can see how focused and serious she is. She doesn’t have that country club mentality that so often happens in elite tennis circles. She managed to reach this level through sheer determination, way above most kids I have met.
Sheil knows Fearon well
“They compete against each other frequently, including training together,” Knoch said. “Addison is a hard worker who has all the attributes. Like Haylee, she has improved her mental side of the game, which is what it takes to break through.
Players enter the OHSAA tournament and must choose between singles and doubles. The Hoover camp decided to send Sheil to doubles, which is no surprise since Sheil and Papcke won a match together at last year’s state competition.
“Addy and Ema have been playing doubles together since middle school,” McHolm said. “They have chemistry.
“Addy loves singles, but I think she likes doubles a lot more.”
Stark County state qualifiers all won their first two district matches. Sheil and Papcke also won a third match before losing in the final to Elena Fleming and Ella Workinger of Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Helle and Nagajothi helped Jackson win its first regular-season Federal League title since 2016. Hoover then began a dynasty-style run that extended until this year’s Vikings won the Federal League 2024.
“We finished 18-4 as a team,” Jackson head coach Brett Marlowe said, calling a regular-season win over Hoover a “big play-off point.”
Helle and Hoover’s Papcke were the best singles players in the Federal League after Sheil and Fearon. Helle went 20-10 her freshman year in singles. Papcke was undefeated for Hoover at second singles.
Helle’s young career follows in the footsteps of Alvin Altman, who balanced basketball and tennis. He was a state qualifier as a 2022 senior and plays club tennis at Ohio State, after opting to transfer from Western Michigan.
After this week’s state tournament, Helle will step up and become a point guard on the basketball team.
“She takes the time to be the best she can be at tennis and basketball,” Marlowe said.
Marlowe said Helle and Nagajothi are “two of the most positive people on the pitch I have ever seen”.
The 16 qualified singles teams and 16 doubles teams will attempt to qualify in two matches on Thursday through the semi-finals and finals on Friday.
In doubles, Mason’s Emma Wagner and Pratyusha Chauduri return as defending champions. They would face Sheil and Papcke in the second round, if the Vikings duo wins in the first round.
In singles, this is a new field after a 2023 tournament in which all four semifinalists were seniors, including future champion Tess Bucher of Hoover.
This article was originally published on The Repository: Hoover, Jackson and Perry at the OHSAA girls state tennis tournament
