Brocker, Fredericka excited for weekend

May 27, 2010 at 12:08a.m.

By Joe Scalzo

After advancing to the second round of the Division II state tennis tournament last spring, Warren JFK’s Michael Fredericka decided to give up basketball so he could focus on tennis year-round.

The decision allowed him to improve his game while also gaining exposure to some of the state’s best players in offseason tournaments.

Everything was going according to plan this season as Fredericka won his second straight sectional title two weeks ago and finished third at last week’s district meet.

Then things hit a snag.

For his first-round state tournament match, Fredericka drew defending state champion Joey Fritz of Cincinnati Country Day.

“When I first saw it, I wasn’t exactly happy with the draw, but everybody’s goal is to win it,” said Fredericka, a junior. “And the way I look at it, you have to play everybody at some point.

“The road’s not easy and it’s even more difficult this year, but I’m looking at it as a positive.”

This is the third straight state singles berth for Fredericka, who joins Poland senior Ben Brocker as the only two area players still alive. Fredericka was bounced in the first round of the 2008 tournament, then went 1-1 last year.

Brocker is also making his third straight state singles appearance after finishing fifth at the district to grab the final qualifying spot. Like Fredericka, Brocker also gave up basketball this winter, where he would have been a key player on the Bulldogs’ district championship team.

Brocker, who lettered for Poland’s 2008 state semifinal basketball team, played doubles with his older brother Brad as a freshman and missed the state tournament by one match.

“I had been practicing with the basketball team [last summer] and I lost to a kid in straight sets that I should have beat,” said Brocker, whose father Brad played at Mount Union and whose three sisters, Britini, Becca and Gab, also played the sport. “It made me realize if I kept playing basketball, I wasn’t going to do so hot in tennis.”

Since Brocker’s future was in tennis — he’ll play at the University of Toledo next year — he gave up hoops and started playing tennis at least three hours a day in the summer. A 4.0 student, Brocker is in line to be one of Poland’s valedictorians and plans to major in pre-med at Toledo, so he obviously couldn’t keep up his summer pace. But still played three or four times a week, usually for an hour at a time, during the fall and winter.

“When I’m playing well, I can easily play six hours a day,” he said. “When I’m playing bad, I want to get off the court.”

Brocker, who will meet Coshocton senior Ryan Shutt in Friday’s first round, has a better draw than Fredericka but knows once he reaches Columbus, there are no easy matches. Coincidentally, Brocker was eliminated by Fritz in the second round of last year’s tournament.

Fredericka lost to Fritz in their only (non-high school) meeting but said he’s been playing well over the past two weeks and is just hoping he’ll have his A-game against last year’s champ.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” Fredericka said. “Unlucky draws or not, you’ve got to train your hardest and do your best.

“Hopefully I can just keep playing better and do some damage.”