Glen Lake tennis team put a cherry on top of a spectacular season Monday and Tuesday at the MHSAA Div.4 State Championships in Midland.
“We came out ready to play and perform ... It was really awesome to show up and play as hard as we could,” Glen Lake coach Johnny Voss said.
The Lakers finished a schoolrecord second overall as a team, behind private school Holland Christian.
Glen Lake senior Michael Houtteman became the first individual state champion in school history as he ran through the third singles flight.
“It’s awesome this is something that I’ve been eyeing the whole season and it’s nice to get it done,” Houtteman said.
Houtteman earned the No. 1 seed and had a first-round bye before seeing his first action Monday morning against Kyle Carpenter of Grand Rapids West Catholic to win in straight sets 6-0, 6-0.
In the semifinals, Houtteman took care of business once again in straight sets 6-0, 6-1 against Dominic Perez of Lansing Catholic. Houtteman then asserted his dominance against Grosse Pointe Woods University’s Yurii Polnyi 6-0, 6-0 to catapult him to the state championship match.
A senior, Houtteman was paired against Berrien Springs freshman Edwin Seo in the state championship match. Houtteman faced some adversity early, but not often, as he cruised to another win 6-2, 6-1.
“The whole team battled and fought through it as much as they could,” Houtteman said. “It’s been awesome. My freshman year was the first year we got the courts at the school. I love playing tennis because my best friends played growing up all the time. We decided to keep playing and it was an awesome decision. I got to hang out with my friends on road trips and play matches and battle against each other at practice, then go battle with each other in tournaments.”
Houtteman will take with him from the sport of tennis is to always enjoy the process.
“Enjoy showing up to work or showing up to practice every day and then as you keep going things start to happen, you gotta enjoy it when it’s hard,” Houtteman said. “I’ll miss the camaraderie and the brotherhood that we’ve created. We got quite a few seniors this year and we’ve been together for so long that I think for me, I’ll miss the good times I had with the boys.”
Glen Lake sophomore Hawthorne Sutherland finished runner-up in the second singles flight, paving his way to the second highest finish in school history.
Hawthorne won a pair of close matches on his path to the finals. He defeated Williamston’s Luke Harkema 6-0, 6-2, before battling through the quarterfinals with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Eli Schmude of T-C St. Francis. Sutherland had his best match in the semifinals where he won 6-3, 6-1 against Grand Rapids Catholic.
The sophomore would lose a tight finals match 6-3, 7-5 against Dylan Becksvoort.
“Even going into my last match, I lost the first set 6-3 and I changed up my strategy. It didn’t go very well, right at the end of that set, but I ended up getting a 5-3 lead for a chance to close out the second set. It’s so important to change your strategy and think about strategy,” Hawthorne said.
This is the last match he will play with his brother, Colebrook.
“It’ll be way different without Colebrook on one side of the court … I’ll miss warming up with the seniors before matches,” Hawthorne said.
Glen Lake senior Colebrook Sutherland reached the quarterfi nals in the first singles flight, which is the best of the best in Michigan Div. 4 tennis.
Sutherland went into the tournament as No. 5 seed last year. After a last-minute reseeding from tournament officials, Sutherland was suddenly ranked seventh overall and immediately had to strategize.
“I had to focus on that because I didn’t want to lose. I wanted to at least get to the quarterfinals, which makes me all-state for the third year. I just focused hard and was able to win one,” Colebrook said.
Sutherland became the first tennis player in school history to be named all-state three years in-a-row.
Sutherland would see a familiar foe in T-C St. Francis senior Owen Jackson in the quarterfinal.
“(Jackson) has beaten me pretty bad a lot of times this year, and I have been in a negative mindset everytime I play him. But with it being my last match and knowing it was gonna be the last high school match I ever play. My mindset just changed. I just wanted to be out there as long as I possibly could,” Sutherland said.
Jackson went on to lose in the finals against Holland Christian.
Sutherland will be taking with him the many friends and memories made over the years.
Glen Lake junior Ben Selby finished his season in the semifi nals of the fourth singles flight.
Selby recalls staying in a great hotel, surrounded by other teams soaking in the experience.
“You’d get in the elevator and there’d be four different teams in there and we’d all just be talking to each other about what’s going on and we had good team bonding dinners,” Selby said.
He recalls having nerves during the first match. After a shaky first round, Selby got his serve rolling.
Selby lost in the semifinals to the No.1 seed in the flight, which was the proverbial championship match against Niko Grosso of Holland Christian.
“We’ve never done this before, you know, we’ve never gotten this far way over achieving … we didn’t take, We didn’t take home the gold, but it was still great. We still had a great time. We all bonded a lot and I feel like that’s what matters the most,” Selby said.
Ben Romzak and Lake Leelanau St. Mary junior Oliver Mitchell performed in the first doubles flight and ended in the quarterfinals.
Romzak and Mitchell had first round bye, before defeating a pair from Lansing Catholic 6-1, 6-3.
The Laker duo would face a tough Holland Christian team in the semifinals where they lost 6-2, 6-2.
“We played the best game we could have played,” Romzak said. “It means a lot because I started playing tennis my freshman year and starting back then we didn’t even have a full team. I never thought I would personally make it this far, even at one doubles because the first time touching a tennis racket was my freshman year … Playing with Oliver was the most fun I’ve ever had playing doubles and I’ve played doubles all four years of my tennis high school career.”
Romzak will always take with him the skills to persevere and always get better.
“If you try your hardest at whatever you do in life, you always get better and if you put a maximum effort, you’ll get great results,” Romzak said.
Andrew Schopieray and Bryce Cundiff battled it out in the second flight doubles.
The Laker pair had a first round bye and tried remaining focused and warm before their match against Allegan. The pair found their groove, winning 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals.
They ended up losing in the semifinal against Holland Christian.
“As a senior, I definitely think it affected me since it was probably one of my last times stepping on a court in a competitive setting at least. It just hit me hard, seeing how far Glen Lake tennis has come because we didn’t even have courts four years ago at our school. It’s just super powerful that a small school like us was able to push through and just make it that far,” Schopieray said. “ I love the game of tennis … that’s never gonna go away. I’d take with me the memories, even at practice. The friends I made, I’ll have them forever, so that’ll stick with me more than the game itself.”
