Area coaches are fired up about the five Stark County players swinging into the OHSAA Division I state high school girls tennis tournament, including a history-making star from Perry.
Juniors Addison Sheil and Ema Papcke of Hoover advanced as district doubles runners-up.
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 lone state representative in singles based on a fourth-place district finish. Fearon is the first state-qualifier in singles in Perry girls tennis history. One Perry player, Scott Pukys in 1988, reached the state singles tournament on the boys side.
Sheil and Fearon asserted themselves as the best players in the county during a season now winding to the finish at the state tournament at the College of Wooster, Thursday and Friday.
In the recent Federal League Tournament, Sheil beat Fearon in two sets in the singles finals, a week after needing three sets to beat Fearon in a regular-season battle.
First-year Hoover head coach Kay McHolm said Sheil is “definitely the best player in Stark County,” a view backed up by the fact Sheil’s only regular-season loss was to senior Ava Mathur, a Wooster senior who made the state tournament in singles.
Fearon as an emerging force.
“(Fearon) was a good player last year and she’s definitely gotten better,” McHolm said. “She’s very focused, she has great ground strokes, and great knowledge of the court.”
In the Federal League singles tournament, Fearon outlasted Helle in a three-set semifinal.
Kevin Knoch, who has coached Perry boys for 19 years and Perry girls for 18, is thrilled to see Fearon make school history.
“She was good as a freshman and has grown by leaps and bounds the last two years,” Knoch said. “Coming from the background of Perry and the hard-working, blue-collar mentality, she’s applied that to her tennis.
“If you watch her you can see how focused and serious she is. She doesn’t have that country club mentality as so often happens in elite tennis circles. She’s worked her way into that level because of her determination, far and above most of the kids I’ve come across.”
Sheil knows Fearon well
“They battle each other frequently, including practicing together,” Knoch said. “Addison is a hard worker who has all the shots. Like Haylee, she’s improved her mental side of the game, which is what it takes to break through.”
Players head into the OHSAA tournament needing to choose between singles and doubles. The Hoover camp decided to send Sheil in doubles, not a surprise since Sheil and Papcke won a match together at last year’s state meet.
“Addy and Ema have been playing doubles together since middle school,” McHolm said. “They have chemistry.
“Addy loves the game of singles, but I think she enjoys doubles much more.”
Stark County’s state qualifiers all won their first two district matches. Sheil and Papcke also took a third match before falling in the finals to Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin’s Elena Fleming and Ella Workinger, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Helle and Nagajothi helped lead Jackson to its first regular-season overall Federal League title since 2016. Hoover then began a dynasty-style run that extended to this year’s Vikings winning the 2024 Federal League Tournament.
“We ended up 18-4 as a team,” Jackson head coach Brett Marlowe said, calling a regular-season win over Hoover “a big jump-off point.”
Helle and Hoover’s Papcke were the Federal League’s top singles players after Sheil and Fearon. Helle went 20-10 in her first year at first singles. Papcke was unbeaten for Hoover at second singles.
Helle’s young career is along the lines of Alvin Altman, who balanced basketball and tennis. He was a state qualifier as a 2022 senior who is playing club tennis at Ohio State, having elected leave Western Michigan.
After this week’s state tournament, Helle will shift gears to playing point guard on the basketball team.
“She makes the time to be the best she can be at tennis and at basketball,” Marlowe said.
Marlowe said Helle and Nagajothi are “two of the most positive people on the court I’ve ever seen.”
The 16 state qualifiers in singles and the 16 doubles teams will try to advance through two matches Thursday to Friday’s semifinals and finals.
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 state-meet singles, it’s a new-look field after a 2023 tournament in which all four semifinalists were seniors, including eventual champion Tess Bucher of Hoover.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Hoover, Jackson, Perry in OHSAA girls state tennis tournament
