Tourney in a word: Amazing

Area schools step up to save major event

Generally speaking, you don't think of tennis as a team sport.

The action on the court is a one-on-one battle or -- at most -- a two-on-two competition.

Yet, when the last ball was hit into the net at the Warren Invitational prep boys tennis tournament on Wednesday, it capped an amazing day of action that was made possible only by one of the greatest TEAM efforts you're ever going to see around these parts.

Even tournament host Greg Cohen -- boys tennis coach at Warren High -- was in awe of what was accomplished.

When he announced on Tuesday night that the 19-school event would go on as planned, you couldn't help but note the excitement in his voice as he expressed appreciation to all who made the courts playable.

The tourney format called for a series of dual meets between the schools. with each team playing four different opponents. With each competition featuring two singles matches and three doubles matches, that's a lot of tennis, meaning that a lot of courts were needed.

When the storm hit last weekend, you wouldn't have given the Warren Invitational a snowball's chance of being held.

Yet, there the 19 schools were on Wednesday, smacking balls around on courts at Warren, Antioch, Lakes, Grant and Grayslake North high schools.

It was a tribute to the efforts of a lot of people at a lot of different schools, and Cohen wanted to make sure their efforts were noted.

"We'd like to thank the schools for helping host this event," Cohen said. "There is no one site that could host a dual event with this many teams."

The longtime Warren coach then gave special mention to the following people/groups:

n Grayslake North High for allowing their courts to be used.

n Antioch High for allowing their courts to be used. "It was an amazing job done by their maintenance department to get the courts ready," said Cohen. "They did this without their own team even being in the tournament."

n Grant High, including coach Curt Sheets, coach Frank Cittadino, their team and the maintenance department for their work to get their courts ready.

n Lakes High, including coach Bryan Plinske and the Lakes team. "They were outstanding co-hosts as usual. Coach Plinske is one the best I have ever met at getting a site ready and working hard to make a meet work," said Cohen.

As for the action on the court, Warren, Lakes, Elgin Larkin and Peoria Richwoods were the teams that went 4-0 in matches.

The other area schools in the field were Grayslake Central (3-1 record), Carmel (1-3), Mundelein (1-3), Wauconda (1-3), Round Lake (0-4) and Zion-Benton (0-4). Warren actually entered four teams in the tourney, with its top team going 4-0.