Game, set, match!: Brebeuf boys reign as state champs in tennis

The players and coaches of the boys’ tennis team of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis pose with their Indiana State High School Athletic Association state championship trophy after their thrilling victory over the team from Center Grove High School on Oct. 19 in Indianapolis. (Photo courtesy of Mike Hoffbauer)

By John Shaughnessy

The photograph captures a slightly different perspective of a team celebrating a state championship—more real, more reflective of what most high school sports teams experience in a season.

In this state championship photo, not everyone is grinning like a child who just got everything he or she wanted for Christmas. Of course, there are smiles of great joy on some of the athletes’ faces, but there are also looks of grit and toughness, and even a hint of all the hard work that teammates share trying to reach their goals.

Combine the joy, the grit and the hard work and you get a picture of the qualities that most high school athletes bring to their sport. You also get a picture like the one connected to this story about the boys’ tennis team of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis.

For the Brebeuf players and coaches, that photo—showing their arms around each other— now captures a moment that will live in their hearts and minds forever.

On Oct. 19 in Indianapolis, the Brebeuf team achieved its dream of winning the state championship in what its head coach Brandon Gill describes as “an epic state finals” match against the team from Center Grove High School.

With the teams tied at 2-2 after the first four matches, the state championship came down to the nail-biting fifth match, with the final two points being played out in volleys that lasted beyond 20 times. When Brebeuf finally earned the winning point that secured the state championship, the team was swarmed by friends, classmates and family members in a scene that Gill describes as “pandemonium.”

“In that moment, I was trying to get to my guys to give them all a big hug, but it was definitely a lot of elation,” Gill recalls.

Later, he would have some quieter time with the teammates who played that day, Ethan Birge, Owen Birge, Andrew Held, Will Hutchinson, Harry Stutler, Anthony Suscha and Tony Tancredi.

“I told them that nothing was given to them, they earned everything this season, and they showed a lot of resiliency and mental toughness to come through in the big moments,” Gill says. “And it wasn’t just one person. They each had big moments along the way where they had to come through.”

Developing an increased emphasis on resiliency and mental toughness in the players became a more focused pursuit for Gill when he began working with them last spring. For his 11th season of coaching at Brebeuf, he wanted the team to be more disciplined, to be more accountable, to be more of a team that cared about each other.

“Tennis is so very individual, but you have to have a mindset that it’s still a team sport,” Gill says. “You have other high school sports like that—cross country and golf. It’s very easy to slip into an individual mindset when you’re playing on a high school tennis team, and we were really trying to hit home that you guys have to play for one another. And when things aren’t going great, you’re not digging deep for yourself, you’re digging deep for your teammates.

“We had a mental toughness coach, Tommy Short. He was extremely helpful when we’d have team sessions. It was more time for the kids to bond outside of the competitive landscape.”

The bond among the players shined through in two of the team mantras that they constantly shared with—and shouted to—each other during practices and matches: “All in!” and “Commitment over feelings.”

That commitment led the team to fight back and win a regional match against the team from Carmel High School after losing the first two matches and trailing in a third. It also led to a 24-1 record for the season and the state championship.

In leading the team to the championship as a head coach, Gill added to the individual state championships and the team state championships that he experienced when he played tennis as a student at Park Tudor High School in Indianapolis, where he graduated in 2001.

“One thing I did tell the boys is that the feeling I had of winning state individually was great, but it didn’t match the feeling of what it was like to win state as a team. To win it as a team, the feeling of that is completely different. It’s more joyful to share it with other people.

“The joy I feel of being in charge of a group of guys and having that experience together is something that is greater than an individual accomplishment. You’re sharing that experience with the kids, the parents. That’s what high school tennis is all about.”

When Gill sees his players now, the looks of grit and toughness that some of them had in that championship photo have changed dramatically. Everyone smiles a little wider now when they see other. Everyone’s eyes shine a little brighter.

“As time goes on, it’s always going to be something that we can look back on, and we’ll have those memories forever,” Gill says. “When you win as a head coach or a player for the first time, it’s something that is always going to have an imprint. You definitely have to enjoy it, and we will. We’re over the moon about that. It’s a great accomplishment.”

Gill pauses before adding, “But we’re hungry to do it again.” †