Tallahassee’s Top Tennis Talent Moves On

This week, three recent high school graduates from Tallahassee are moving on to play at the college tennis level. Brett Landau just left for the University of North Carolina at Asheville; Chris Perrigan is on his way to Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers; and Josh Record is headed to the College of Charleston. Chris and Brett were the top two players at Maclay while Josh was the top player to come out of Leon.  All three have competed at the state and national level and their games are on their way up.

I should know. Between the three of these guys, I have had the opportunity to play them all over the past few years.  I’m now at the age of 34 and while I feel like I’m in great shape, I’m feeling that age more and more each day.

As a former junior tennis player, I am quite familiar with the ups and downs that training for this game requires. And no matter what level you play at, it’s a frustrating game too: physically, mentally, emotionally. It drains you. When I got to the age of 18, where Chris, Brett, and Josh are at right now, I couldn’t take it any more. I burned out. After being part of a state championship team at Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas, winning district titles all four years, and being a highly ranked junior on the USTA circuit, I called the game quits. I didn’t play college tennis at all, and wouldn’t play again for another five years. And then it was a slow return as I had to adjust getting back to playing tennis with a full time work schedule that hits you when you reach the real world.

Since moving to Tallahassee just over four and half years ago, I have found a renewed passion for the game. There is a really great tennis community here and these three young guys are largely responsible for me getting out there and competing so often. Having the opportunity to compete with guys at that level drives you.

One day four years ago, when I came out to Forest Meadows looking to hit with some of the fellow adult guys on my 4.5 league team, I was odd man out. So, our captain Tim Thompson, who was a local tennis coach (and now teaches in Bainbridge, GA) asked me to hit with Josh Record, who I believe was just a few days shy of his 15th birthday at the time.  While he had great strokes, I schooled him, without much effort.

I would play Josh again a few times about a year later. While I was still winning pretty handily, effort was now required. A year later, he started getting close to beating me. Another year later, he started taking sets. Soon enough, I couldn’t really beat him any more. He grew to about 6’2” and he started putting the soccer cleats down to concentrate a bit more on tennis. The scary part of it is, I was actually playing better tennis when he started beating me than when I had played him earlier.

About a year or so ago, via the Tallahassee Tennis Ladder which I play on, I tried my luck with Brett Landau. The first time I played him I knew I had my hands full. He seemed a bit cocky at first, but I think after I lucked out and took a set, I gained a little bit of respect. Over the past year, I’ve played Brett about 20 times. While we always seem to have plenty of battles, I have only beat him once in a full match and I’ve taken a set off him only a handful of times. The last five times or so, while I’ve struggled to make the match close, there was no way I was going to beat him and I knew it. He has a monster serve that really can’t be stopped. (Well, not by me anyway). And that puts so much pressure on you when you’re serving against him. You can’t lose your service game once in a set against him or you’re done. I really don’t know how any of the other guys around town beat him. Maybe it’s mental. I lost to Brett again a few days before he took off for Asheville. Thinking I might be able to get at least one victory over him, I challenged him to ping pong – a game I rarely lose at and where I figured he wouldn’t have the advantage of a monster serve. Let’s just say, I’d rather not report that score either.

So of course this summer I tried my luck against Chris Perrigan, who played #1 on the Maclay team with Brett. Chris and I played two full matches and I battled hard. He won the first one 7-6, 6-4. We had some long games and some incredible points on a 90-degree, very humid day. This 34-year old was able to hang for two and half hours with one of the top 18 year olds in northern Florida. Even when I lost the match, I felt like I had competed hard and I walked off the court with my head high – even if my body was aching.

This past week, I played Chris one more time. I was up 5-3. At 5-4, I was serving for the set. I hit three double faults in the same game. After playing a great set to get to that point, those double faults demoralized me mentally and I never recovered – and Chris stepped up his game as well. He won 7-5, 6-2 on another 90 degree afternoon.

So after losing to Brett and Chris in the same 8 days, I had one more of these guys to play before they all headed out of Tallahassee. I had one last chance to play Josh before he moved on to college. After playing Brett and Chris in close matches (well, close first sets) over the past 8 days, I felt my game was in as good of shape as it was going to be going into the match with Josh. But it still wasn’t good enough in the first set. My serve was broken only one time and Josh won the first set 6-3.

We battled hard in the first game of the second set. I was serving and I barely held. Then, I broke his serve. Up 2-0, I felt good. Then, once again, my serve let me down. In an eery similarity to the day before against Chris, I hit three double faults in the same game and now we were back on serve. This time, I was more mentally tough. I broke Josh again and felt like I was going to recover, until he broke me back – again! Up 3-2, I broke him again. When I won that game to go up 4-2, I shouted across the net to Josh, “I have to take advantage of this,” referring to the fact that I just broke him three times in the same set, but was only up one break. I went on to hold two times and won the set 6-3! We played a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the match and I pulled through, winning 10-4.

As we walked off the court, Josh said, “Well I guess this ends this story.” I laughed and replied, “I beat you the first time we played and I beat you the last time we played. It’s like a book. Everyone reads the intro and the conclusion. All that stuff in the middle doesn’t matter.”

Of course it was only a joke. All that stuff in the middle is what mattered. I’ve played Josh more than anyone else in Tallahassee over the past four years. I’m certainly going to miss our battles and Josh’s great competitive spirit. He has really matured as a player and as an individual. And I think his father, Kevin, the coach of the Leon team, deserves much of the credit for how he has raised Josh as a person and given him the freedom to develop as a player.

Every time I left the court after playing with Josh, Brett, and more recently Chris, I always think to myself how mature, well-behaved, and polite these guys are. My first impression of Brett was that he was a young, cocky player. But that changed immediately just a few matches later when he asked me for advice on his game, particularly on his return of serve, which he was looking to improve. That takes humility and an eager spirit to get better. And over the past year, that determination has paid off.

As all tennis players know, the lines are never our friends. I have played and continue to play plenty of players (including adults) that call lines out. Whether they intentionally “cheat” or are just not seeing the ball right, I don’t know. But not these guys. They not only play lines in, but I swear sometimes they play out balls because they’re not sure enough to call the ball out. Maybe they’re just trying to take it easy on this old guy. But more likely, they’re just being honest and respectful of their opponent (and maybe their elder). That alone tells me something about their character. Perhaps it’s something larger about Tallahassee or this tennis community that has fostered these young guns. There isn’t as much competition here for junior players as there are in most other places around Florida. But these guys compete against me, each other, and others in the community and they have managed to stay friends and help each other get better. If they continue that spirit in their college careers, they’ll not only get a great education in the classroom and on the court, but their games will elevate as well.

They have competed hard and I’ve been privileged to play them so many times. I look forward to hearing about their successes and their trials and their ability to take on what’s coming their way, whether that be on or off the tennis court. Tennis teaches life lessons and if it’s any tribute to what I’ve witnessed from these guys as tennis players or young men, they are all improving and getting better and they exhibit the epitome of sportsmanship. They’ve helped me value the time I have gotten back on the tennis court after so many years away and for that I am thankful. May they spend every day valuing their own time on the court and cherish an experience in college that few have ever had.