By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

Geneseo High School graduating seniors Henry Lehman and Alex Slaymaker have made an impression on the tennis courts…And the gifted teammates have been able to celebrate together with conference wins in their last two seasons.

Slaymaker, son of Mike and Misty Slaymaker, will be on the tennis team this fall at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he also will be part of the college A Cappella Choir.

Lehman, son of Tim and Emily Lehman, plans to attend Iowa State University, Ames, to major in software engineering and Spanish. He added, “I am nowhere near skilled enough to play on their tennis team. However, I am planning on bringing my rackets and shoes, so I can play recreationally as much as possible.”

It was Slaymaker who introduced Lehman to tennis. “The community tennis association runs a Cardio Tennis program for adults, and Alex’s parents are very involved in it,” Lehman said. “He invited me to come along one day to play on the side, as you had to have graduated from high school to participate in the actual course…It was a blast! That Easter, my parents got me my first racket from Wal-Mart, and I haven’t looked back since.”

The two friends played together often during the summer after their eighth grade school year, and Lehman added, “We invited some of our friends to play with us, and a group of us continued to play consistently. Funny enough, that group was Alex, Connor Nelson, Eric Vergane, Samuel Robinson and Sam Mosbarger.” (Those same athletes make up this year’s GHS varsity tennis team.)

When both Lehman and Slaymaker were asked about the satisfaction of playing tennis, in addition to winning, Lehman said, “I think you are exactly right to imply that winning is the most satisfying part of being on the tennis team…However, there have been many times in my high school tennis career where I won a match and felt awful about my performance. There have also been times when I lost a match, but was surprised by how well I played. So, I think that for me, the most satisfying part of playing tennis is improving. For example, I got the privilege to pay Nick Patrick, the singles state champ from last year. He absolutely destroyed me (0-6 and 0-6), but I loved playing that match because I had to appreciate every point I won, aka the little things. I think I only won 10 points in the whole match.”

Slaymaker has played tennis and soccer during his four high school years and shared how he began playing tennis.

“My sister (Emma Slaymaker) started to take lessons in elementary school with a friend form Coach Mighell. Whenever her friend couldn’t make it, I would take her place. I became serious about tennis the summer before my freshman year when a group of us went to the courts every day just to hang out. Over the past few years, that group of boys has turned into our current varsity team.”

Slaymaker learned from that same group of friends “that tennis is about going out and having fun with the people around you. I have been able to build close relationships with the team during my years in high school….Mason Smith, my sophomore year doubles partner, is still on the court with me as a coach.”

His sister, Emma Slaymaker, was on the GHS team during her high school years and Slaymaker’s parents take part in Cardio Tennis.

Lehman’s brother, Tim, also played tennis during his years at GHS and he has a sister, Kate, a freshman at GHS.

Lehman said tennis “is not deeply ingrained in my family. Sometimes we play together, but I have embraced the sport much more than the rest of my family.”

When asked about working on their game in the offseason, Lehman replied, “The offseason is tricky. As tennis is an outside sport and happens in the spring, it is very difficult to prepare before the season arrives. This is opposite of girls’ tennis that is in the fall, (at GHS), and you can prepare all summer. So, in order to try and work around the weather, some of us play at the Quad City Tennis Club to try and at least get a little hitting in before the season begins. However, most progression happens either mid season or over the summer.”

Lehman cited his two favorite tennis matches as the match against Nick Patrick and the final match of the Moline Tournament where he won in two very close and hard-fought sets, 7-6 and 7-5….What makes that match even sweeter is I had lost to my opponent two times over the winter, so there was a little bit of revenge involved.”

Slaymaker was involved in playing soccer during the tennis off-season and he said when the soccer season wrapped up in the fall, he would take indoor tennis lessons to prepare for the tennis season.

In his response to being asked about the most rewarding times in his tennis career at GHS, Slaymaker said, “The most rewarding times come with celebrating the past two years Conference Wins with the team and seeing that all the work we have put in has paid off. It has been a great season so far with many different wins and losses. Coach Reed is always positive and supportive no matter the outcome of the match and wants us to know that we can be as competitive as we want as long as we are still having fun. It was exciting to come out with the team winning conference for our senior year and we are hoping to be able to do the same at Sectionals.”

Slaymaker’s closing comment was, “I enjoy being able to help out with coaching younger players through camps and clinics. I would tell my child to give tennis a try. If I hadn’t tagged along to my sister’s lessons, I may never have become interested.”

In closing, Lehman said, “This season has been awesome. First of all, I love seeing how many underclassmen are out for tennis this year. Covid really killed our numbers the last few years and had some of us worried for the future of Geneseo tennis. But our fears were misplaced, as these new underclassmen have proven themselves to be talented and ambitious. I love being able to instruct and show them tips and tricks.”