Grade 11 AHS student-athletes Dillon Johnson and Evan Luebke captured the Gold Medal in the Boys Doubles Division at the OFSAA Tennis Championships in Markham last Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson and Luebke\u2019s performance in Scarborough and Markham from October 26-28 was remarkable. The Aurora-born-and-raised dynamic duo swept through their five matches\u2014including a dramatic quarterfinal upset of #1-seeded SAC \u2013 without dropping a set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to playing peerless tennis at the provincials as the #5-seeded team, Johnson and Luebke\u2019s trip to the top of the podium earned the first OFSAA tennis title in Aurora High School\u2019s storied athletic history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luebke described how capturing a YRAA championship against strong local competition not only stamped their ticket to OFSAA, but also created momentum for them in Scarborough and Markham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThroughout the tournaments and as we continuously won matches, it was a really good feeling that filled us with confidence. Since this has never been done before at our high school, I feel so accomplished and it\u2019s a good feeling to bring some glory to our athletics program. I hope it will inspire others to join the tennis team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson agreed with his teammate about the need to expand the school\u2019s tennis team: \u201cIt\u2019s not a sport that a lot of people play at the school\u2014it sometimes falls into the background to the sports with longer seasons \u2013 so winning a tennis championship is a way to make it more prominent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both student-athletes gave credit to their Aurora Community Tennis Club Coach Jordan Master for his invaluable lessons and strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson applauded the local tennis pro\u2019s contributions to their provincial championship: \u201cJustin\u2019s been my coach since I was five. He\u2019s basically the reason that I still play tennis. I work at the camps at the ACTC where he\u2019s our pro. It\u2019s also how I first connected on the court with Evan. We started playing together when we were 13 and started playing as a doubles team in 2023. We were so happy that Jordan came to watch us win in the OFSAA finals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luebke echoed his teammate\u2019s sentiments about Master\u2019s impact: \u201cJordan as a coach is an outlet of positivity. He\u2019s inspired a younger generation of players. He\u2019s helped us progress, especially through so many experiences at tournaments over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both gold medalists applauded the efforts of their high school coach, Michael Petinarelis, who has built the Eagles\u2019 tennis program. Johnson observed that \u201cHe\u2019s the main reason Aurora High School has a tennis team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe wanted it to happen and we were happy that he was able to take three days off school to support us at OFSAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luebke added that \u201cIt was great to have our Coach there to celebrate our wins with us. Coach Petinarelis communicated to the school about our wins at tournaments through the school announcements. He\u2019s such an advocate for us and he told us after we won the gold medal that he\u2019s never been more nervous in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Coach Petinarelis felt some nervous tension during the five OFSSA matches, his players performed with steely resolve and impressive efficiency. Johnson and Luebke made short work of their Round 1 opponents\u2014Ethan McClellan and Rhys Tradell\u2014by steamrolling them 4-1 and 4-0 on Monday morning at L\u2019Amoreaux Community Rec Centre in Scarborough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three hours later, the indomitable AHS duo dispatched Windsor\u2019s Christone Tao and Owen Muldrew 4-1 and 4-0 to advance to the quarterfinals against #1-seeded St. Andrew\u2019s College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the all-Aurora playoff round at L\u2019Amoreaux on Tuesday morning, Johnson and Luebke vanquished SAC\u2019s doubles team– comprised of Eddie Duicu and Rian Yoshimi– 4-0 and 4-0 and sent the favored Saints to the sideline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After eliminating the top-seeded team, Aurora High School\u2019s doubles team toppled Holy Trinity 4-2 and 4-2 on Tuesday afternoon. The decisive semifinal victory over Anthony Bubanovich and Rodrigo Badillo Tovar moved Johnson and Luebke to the provincial championship match on Wednesday morning against Etobicoke Collegiate student-athletes Dylan Riach and Gareth Clark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AHS\u2019s juggernaut was not to be denied in the Final at Mayfair East in Markham. Johnson and Luebke breezed through their first set 4-0, but Riach and Clark mounted more resistance in the second set before falling 4-3 to the gold medal-winning Eagles duo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked if there was a turning point in their golden season, Luebke described the intensity of playing locally against so many strong players: \u201cWhen we went to the Area tournament, I was a bit nervous but we won it without dropping a game. We knew we had a real chance to win gold because so many of the good players in Ontario are congregated here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson agreed that having to compete against strong and older teams in the Area and YRAA tournaments prepared them for the challenges at OFSSA, but he isolated the quarterfinal victory over SAC as the most significant milestone of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYork Region has so many of the best players in the province and York Region teams did really well at OFSSA. But after we beat the #1 seed SAC 4-0 and 4-0 in the quarters, that really built our confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grade 11 AHS student-athletes Dillon Johnson and Evan Luebke captured the Gold Medal in the Boys Doubles Division at the OFSAA Tennis Championships in Markham last Wednesday. Johnson and Luebke\u2019s performance in Scarborough and Markham from October 26-28 was remarkable. The Aurora-born-and-raised dynamic duo swept through their five matches\u2014including a dramatic quarterfinal upset of #1-seeded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39265,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264\/revisions\/39265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}