Some fate helps Cranbrook to another title
Never has a rainy forecast 600 miles away generated so much excitement.
But forBloomfieldHills Cranbrook Kingswood boys tennis coach Steve Herdoiza and his team, the dreary report for last Friday very well could be the reason the Cranes were able to celebrate the 23rd boys state tennis championship in school history yesterday.
Junior brothers Theo and Sebastian Taubman were supposed to fly out to New York for their older brother Alexander’s wedding on Oct. 18. The special occasion had been planned since August. It was on the calendar.
There was also a more recent addition to the calendar — the Division 3 team state finals in Holland. The 16-team playoff bracket was held over two days, concluding with the semifinals and finals on that Friday.
“When we found out that the finals were going to be on that Friday, I asked my brother if they could change the (wedding) date,” said Theo, one half of the Cranes’ No. 2 doubles team. “It really wasn’t an option. With COVID and everything else going on — with it being such a short window — they couldn’t
move it.”
But much to the surprise of everyone involved, the weather took a turn for the worse. Because of COVID-19, the wedding was planned for an outdoor venue. Last minute plans had to be made — including a change of date.
“We were so thrilled that it was going to rain. We wanted it to rain. Wewere so happy,” Theo
said. “COVID works in mysterious ways. A normal wedding would never have been postponed for something as trivial as rain. Everything happened perfectly for us to compete and to win. It’s all we could ask for, was the opportunity to play.”
The brothers were able to compete on Friday, helping their team defeat Birmingham
Detroit Country Day, 6-2, in the semifinals and topseeded Ann Arbor Greenhills in a tiebreaker in the championship match.
Theo and his partner, senior Enzo Martella, defeated Greenhills’ Mustafa Zirapury and Yaseen Metwally, 7-5, 6-1, in the finals. Sebastian and his partner, junior Jacob Coburn, beat the Gryphons’ Ryan Wang and Ismael Metwally in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 3 doubles.
“We were not going to have their services for the finals matches, but they came to me (on Wednesday) and told me the wedding had beenmoved,” Herdoiza said. “It really was fate and destiny on our part that they were able to stay and play. Without them, we didn’t have a chance. Had they had to leave on Friday afternoon, we were done. We would have lost thatmatch.
“Everything had to line up for that to happen.”
The finals match ended in a 4- 4 tie. The first tiebreaker is the total number of sets won. Cranbrook won a total of nine sets, while Greenhills won eight. The difference came at 2-singles, where junior Patrick Tiwari lost the match but took his Greenhills foe, Chakor Rajendra, to three sets. Winning the second set, 6-3, gave the Cranes the extra set they needed.
“It was just the most amazing feeling,” said Sebastian, who finished 16-1
on the season. “We knew it was going to be close. I feel like this teampeaked at the right time.”
Senior Geoffrey Qin defeated Finn Feldeisen, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 4 singles and the No. 4 doubles team of Caden Che and Andrew Fink — both freshmen — beat Greenhills’ Arjun Prabhakar and Lucas Nor, 6-0, 6-0, in the championshipmatch.
Cranbrook finished the season 9-1-3. Its lone loss came to Greenhills in the regular season. The team’s tied, 4- 4, with the Gryphons winning on sets. The Cranes then avenged that loss with a win (on sets) after tying Greenhills, 4-4, at the Catholic League Tournament. Cranbrook captured the Bishop division championship.
“You could flip a coin when we played (Greenhills),” Herdoiza said. “It was that close between our two teams. We just fortunately happened to land on heads, which we called that day.”
The coach admitted 2020 was a season unlike any other he’s coached in his long career.
“We (coaches) never really felt like this season was going to go,” he said. “We didn’t get any communication that it was a go until maybe a week before, maybe even a few days before we got clearance. It was really so tenuous right up to the start of it.
“It could have been shut down by the MHSAA at any time, or by Cranbrook at any time.
“Even when it got going it just never felt like it was
going to come to a conclusion.”
But it did, much to the delight of every player who stepped foot out onto the court.
“I think we all felt fortunate to be playing,” Sebastian said. “We all took it match by match, point by point. We focused one point at a time. I don’t think it changed all that much, at least frommy perspective.
“Off the court, I think this team got along really well which helped us overcome the challenges we faced this year.”
The team is relatively young and will return a lot of talent in 2021. The Cranes will endure the loss of three starting seniors, including Qin, Martella and Dhilan Nagaraju, who teamed with junior Isaiah Croskey to play No. 1 doubles.
The top of the lineup will all be back. Sophomore Owen DeMuth played No. 1 singles this season, with Tiwari and sophomore Gian DeGuzman holding down the 2-3 singles spots.
The Cranes have won five of the last six Division 3 state championships, including four straight state titles from 2015-18, the latter two under Herdoiza.
“To be honest, this probably feels as good as any title as any we’ve won because of all the things that we’ve seen, how difficult it was,” Herdoiza said.
“To even get the season going and to endure everything we had to deal with and come out on top, it’s really the icing on the cake, or the cherry on top.”