Andrew Paul was curious. Just about anything to do with tennis these days piques his interest.
So, after last season, he checked with former Edgewood tennis coach and math teacher Doug Uhls to see what the record was for most wins by a Mustang tennis player.
Paul found out that after a strong freshman season at No. 3 singles and two more after claiming the top spot that he was within striking distance of Craig Bruns’ 66 wins set in 1995. On Sept. 19, Paul came up with win No. 67 and has since piled up few more while getting primed for the Bloomington South Sectional that begins on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
“It means quite a bit,” Paul said. “I feel like it’s a reflection of the amount of time I put into it and my growth as a person as well because, obviously, I didn’t do this by myself. I had a lot of help. Parents, teammates, coaches, private coaches, tournaments, other people I’ve found at tournaments and then the work I’ve put in myself.”
Paul has averaged almost 18 wins per season.
“It is an amazing accomplishment for him,” Edgewood coach John Kerr said. “In order to get that record, you’ve got to come in as a freshman and be phenomenal to get those varsity wins to even have a shot at it. And that’s what he did, what set him on the path.”
Lessons learned for Paul
This was no life-long dream. In fact, tennis was a part-time pursuit for Paul when he was in junior high.
“I was very competitive, I’ve always been competitive,” Paul said. “But all through middle school, basketball and baseball, those were my sports. I also did band my freshman year, which was fun. I had done tennis in middle school and it was OK, but I’d always thought of it as my third sport.
“Then after freshman year, I just loved it, so I started putting time in. And then other responsibilities, basketball, baseball, band, slowly started shrinking away. And after sophomore year, it was all gone.”
That’s when he made the move to 1 singles.
“He beat our No. 1 guy in a challenge match, and to take over like that was kind of a shock for everybody,” Kerr said. “Then he kept laying on the gas. How is he doing that? Going from 3 singles and rotated up and just took over. A lot of it comes from his work ethic.”
Paul built off the success he had as a freshman, winning the 3 singles title at the Crawfordsville Tournament. He turned to Bloomington North coach and long-time friend Ken Hydinger for pointers and looked for help in every place he could.
He would take was he was taught, try to master it, then go back to Hydinger, looking for feedback.
“He showed me some small, little details,” Paul said. “He showed me a pro player’s serve. We go to the same church, so I know him and I’m very lucky with that.
“He taught me some things, and I was probably terrible at them, but I think him for being generous enough to help me.”
‘He lives and breathes tennis’
Paul also tried to get involved in offseason tournaments, knowing his flaws would get exposed. And looked for older and better people to hit with. He also started watching the pros a little closer.
“When I was younger, I’d watch Wimbledon,” Paul said. “I’d watch all day, switching channels. It was like March Madness for me.”
Coming into this year, Paul, the 2024 H-T Player of the Year, prepped by hitting against a friend from Greencastle now at Anderson University and other players from Bloomington North and South, getting lessons from Terre Haute North’s coach and a former Indiana University tennis player.
“That was very cool,” Paul said. “He diagnoses things very quickly.”
And so does Paul these days, with the knowledge he’s accrued.
“You watch him now and compare to last year even,” Kerr said. “He’s thinking more, ‘From this serve, I can do this. These are my options. If I place it here, this is what they might do.’
“So thinking through that, constantly learning. He lives and breathes tennis, and the impact it has for our team. We’ve had a rough time team wise because we’re so young. And the divide to our next best guy is so large, so pushing him in practice is very difficult. But to have him still give full effort in practice. He’s always pushing not getting comfortable at the top.”
Paul also had a chance to compete in some top-level tournaments last summer, including a big USTA event in Michigan with a 128-player field. Listed as an alternate, a couple players dropped out to open the door.
“I almost felt like an imposter there,” Paul said. “And it didn’t help I drew the 2 seed. He won the entire tournament. I guarantee you he plays Division I tennis.”
Headed to the next level
Paul would like to play college tennis, too, but has his focus squarely on the high school postseason now.
He’s done his best to be a mentor to the freshmen and sophomore who fill out this years lineup.
“There’s a couple freshmen he took under his wing, and you can tell because they’ve improved so much this year,” Kerr said. “They listen and now they’re starting to say things like, ‘I didn’t move my feet there, that’s why I missed the shot.'”
He’ll be sorely missed next year.
“The leadership and sportsmanship on and off the court,” Kerr said. “My wife, she gets mad at me not getting home from practice soon enough because I’ve been talking to Andrew, who is telling me about a kid on the team he’s been working with and wanted to tell me what they had been working on so I could help him.”
Paul career arc is a lob that doesn’t look like it’s coming down any time soon.
“From 3 singles and no expectations,” Paul said, “it’s just taken off in ways I didn’t even expect.”
North, South face off in opener
The IHSAA released its brackets for the Bloomington South Sectional, which runs Tuesday through Thursday, with matches beginning at 5:30 p.m. each day.
No. 18 North and No. 8 South drew each other in the opener, with the winner taking on Owen Valley. South was a 3-2 winner in the conference match. Edgewood and an also young Brown County squad meet in the other semi. The Mustangs won their regular season meeting 4-1, with 1 doubles going to a third set.
The top singles bracket is going to be as competitive as it’s ever been, with North senior Brady Murphy, who took a three-setter off Paul this season, South sophomore Caleb Lian and Owen Valley senior Sean Goss, still trying to crack the code against Paul.
South’s complete lineup sees Lian, Alex Busch and William Liao at singles and Abe Corry/Josh Sang and Connor Couch/Marko Montano at doubles. North will counter with its same seven as from the first battle: Murphy, Ben Konisky and Tommy Chopra atsingles and Ramsey Mills/Dev Chopra and Hersh Patel/Chris Estivill-Kilmer at doubles.
At Mooresville, the host Pioneers and Martinsville face off while Greencastle meets rival South Putnam in the semis. At Terre Haute North, the host No. 25 Patriots open vs. West Vigo and TH South takes on Northview. At Avon, No. 26 Brownsburg plays Plainfield, winner getting Danville, while No. 15 Avon opens with Tri-West in the semis.
At the Brownsburg Regional, the Bloomington and Terre Haute winners will play in one semi and Avon and Mooresville winners in the other on Oct. 7.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IHSAA boys tennis draw for Bloomington area
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