Boys prep tennis: With bright future ahead, Gevenosky having fun on the court

There was a time when cross country was Roman Gevenosky’s sport. More so in middle school, when he was third place in both the Coalfield Conference and Raleigh County Championships as an eighth-grader.

He continued in high school, but by the time of this, his senior year, he had decided cross country was no longer for him.

But he wasn’t done with sports. He just wasn’t sure what his next arena would be.

It was from his experience in the nationwide craze of pickleball that answer would come.

“I was telling my dad that I wanted to try out a bunch of sports before I went to college, because this is my senior year,” Gevenosky said. “I was like, ‘OK, let’s do tennis first’ because we were big pickleball fans.”

The thing is, he never realized Shady Spring had a boys team.

“I didn’t know it was a thing that was really readily available,” he said. “But once I realized I really liked tennis and I didn’t really like (cross country) anymore, I got a few friends and was like, ‘OK, let’s do this,’ and we all signed up for it.”

Gevenosky first picked up a racket last June. He and his dad played a few times a week throughout the summer. It was then he started considering playing.

“But then I kind of fell out. I didn’t do it over the winter,” he said. “I didn’t do anything.”

When spring came around, that normally meant track season for Gevenosky.

“I started track this March, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m not ready for this,’” he said. “So then I dropped it.”

That’s when his tennis career truly started, and he’s enjoyed the run. He became the Tigers’ clear cut No. 1 singles seed and also teams with junior Zak Waddell as the top doubles team.

When asked how much fun the experience has been, he labeled it “10 out of 10.”

He’s having fun while maintaining focus on his future. He describes himself as “more of a school person. A nerd.”

Sports are more about fun for Gevenosky, who is 7-5 in both singles and doubles.

“What I’ve always said my whole life is I’m going to focus on school,” he said. “That’s always what I cared about. So I’ve never really had that mindset to where I wanted to push myself real hard at a sport. I started tennis, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to try my best and just do this for the fun,’ because that’s always the mentality that I’ve had. And I started out and I was way, way better than I ever thought I would be, and I picked it up way faster than I thought I could have. And I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to put my effort into this.’ I’ve been practicing it as hard as I could at practice, and just do everything I could.”

Gevenosky is already seeing his hard work in the academic arena pay off. He has already been accepted into some of the nation’s most honored universities — Johns Hopkins, Yale, Columbia, Brown and Princeton. However, it looks as if he will be staying closer to home to attend West Virginia University, from which he has received the prestigious Bucklew Scholarship. He will major in Immunology and Medical Microbiology.

His ambitions are many. He will minor in Rural Appalachian Health Disparities and is considering a double major in Public Health. He is on the pre-med track with plans to become an infectious disease physician while also being involved in healthcare policy work in West Virginia.

Graduation is in about a month. Until then, there is more tennis to be played. Gevenosky will try to help the Tigers defend their Coalfield Invitational starting Monday at Liberty. The Tigers and Raiders will be joined by Independence, Wyoming East and Westside. Then the Tigers will play in the Class AA-A Region 3 Tournament the first week of May.

Gevenosky’s plan is simple.

“Do the best I can,” he said. “This is the first I’ve ever tried it, so I’m going to go as far as I can. If I don’t make it, I don’t make it. But I want to keep doing tennis in club in college or whatever, because I’ve really enjoyed it.”