Shamrocks’ top dog
Gutierrez is winning on and off the court
From an individual and a team standpoint, Yuma Catholic senior tennis player Renzo Gutierrez enjoyed a stellar campaign to cap off his high school career.
As a team, the Shamrocks started out the season with a 4-0 mark and ended up with a state qualifying record of 9-3.
It happened to be the first trip to state in program history for boys tennis, something Gutierrez is quite proud of.
“I’d say helping us make it to state was my biggest accomplishment on the court,” Gutierrez told The Yuma Sun. “We made it as a No. 12 seed and we played the No. 5 seed and it was definitely a fun experience for us.” Individually, Gutierrez played as the club’s No. 1 singles player all year while also being part of YC’s No. 1 doubles team.
Between singles and doubles play this past year, the Yuma Catholic senior compiled a record of 13-6 and was selected by the Arizona Interscholastic Association Committee to play at the Division III State Singles Tournament which took place at the Paseo Racquet Center in Phoenix last month.
In tournament competition, Gutierrez won his first two matches in comeback fashion. After dropping the first set in both the first and second rounds, the Yuma Catholic upperclassman won the second set and then won the third set tie breaker to advance. Although he was eventually eliminated in the quarterfinal round, Gutierrez states it was the most competitive brand of
tennis he has ever played in his life.
“Being that it was in the state tournament and it was my senior year, I had the mindset that it was all or nothing, so I just gave it everything I had,” Gutierrez stated. “Coming back to win the first two matches really showed just how competitive the tournament was.”
Part of what motivates Gutierrez to perform at a high level is the fact that tennis is a family affair. One of his younger brothers, Ethan, is currently a freshman on the Shamrocks varsity team. Meanwhile his oldest brother, Lance, was once a teammate at the varsity level for Yuma Catholic. Gutierrez says that is it a surreal feeling to have had the opportunity to play alongside two of his three brothers during his tenure with the Shamrocks tennis program.
“Lance really guided me along while I was coming up, and now I get to fill the same role for Ethan. My youngest brother is in middle school and also plays casually, so all of us really love the sport,” Gutierrez explains.
As he looks ahead to college, Gutierrez, a Chicago native, says he does not plan to continue playing competitive tennis, although he may participate at the intramural level. Instead, Gutierrez plans to focus his energies on academics while studying at the prestigious Notre Dame University, located in South Bend, Indiana. When going through the process of selecting a college, Gutierrez mentions it was the family-like atmosphere he found at Notre Dame which was most appealing.
The ex-Yuma Catholic tennis standout states he is looking to study general biology with the ambitions of becoming a dermatologist one day. He admits that this lifestyle change may pose challenging being that he has been so committed to the sport up to this point.
“Usually, if I don’t play or at least practice for a day or two, it feels kind of odd, so I’m definitely going to miss the feeling of being on the court,” Gutierrez adds. “But I’m very thankful for the life lessons the game has taught me. You’re going to need patience when dealing with a lot of errors that are out of your control and you’ll have to learn to just go with the flow.”