Cole Wilber tried tennis drills a few years ago. Now he's among the state's best
Oct. 11—GRAND FORKS — Cole Wilber's grandparents lived in the Riverside Park neighborhood.
Wilber always saw Terry Paukert running tennis drills for youth players during summer mornings.
In about sixth or seventh grade, he decided to go to one of them.
"I enjoyed it," Wilber said. "I learned a lot. I kept going."
Wilber liked it so much he quit soccer and decided to go out for the Grand Forks Central tennis team in eighth grade.
Three years later, he's the East Region singles champion and the No. 1 seed heading into this weekend's North Dakota boys state tennis tournament at Choice Health and Fitness.
"I don't know if I've ever had a kid who picked up the game so quickly," Central coach Max Weisser said. "He's one of those natural athletes. He figures things out quickly. If you watch him play, he looks like he's had countless hours of instruction at Choice. But he never has."
For Wilber, it's been Central's coaches — including Paukert.
This summer, Grand Forks renamed Riverside Courts to Paukert Tennis Complex.
"That's how it should be," Wilber said. "He's put a lot into our program. Those courts being our home courts, I think it's a good thing they're named after him."
Wilber had to go through some stiff competition to win the East Region singles title last weekend in Fargo.
He beat last year's region singles champion, Espen Schneider of Grand Forks Red River, in the semifinals 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Then, he knocked of teammate Evan Panzer in the final 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4.
"What he needed to work on was closing out points at the net, and also reading when to move forward," Weisser said. "Until Saturday morning, Cole hadn't done that. Then, I bet he went to the net about 30 times against Espen. That carried right over to the final match with Evan. He was doing such a good job with his reads, knowing when his opponent was in a defensive position."
Wilber and Panzer have consistently given Central victories at the top of the lineup, but the Knights will have to find a third win if they want to claim a fourth state championship in six years.
Despite Wilber's victory over Panzer in the East Region tournament, Weisser said Panzer will still play No. 1 for the Knights in the team state tournament, because it was not deemed a challenge match.
The Roughriders, 13-0, have won 29 consecutive duals going back to last season.
But it hasn't been easy this year.
In the regular season, Red River edged West Fargo Sheyenne 5-4 thanks to a three-set victory. Last weekend in the East Region team tournament, the Roughriders edged Central 3-2 with another three-set win.
"We've got some tough competition," Red River coach Josh Lunak said. "We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but if we win (in the quarterfinals), we've potentially got Sheyenne in the semifinal. We've only played them once and it was 5-4."
Red River has won with its depth this season.
In the East Region final, Red River's wins came at No. 3 singles and both doubles positions.
"We played pretty well the whole weekend," Lunak said. "It wasn't perfect tennis, but we're definitely headed in the right direction. Hopefully, we can continue that."
Red River almost qualified its entire team for the state individual tournament.
Schneider and Jadon Tang qualified in singles. Kellen Johnson-Julian Mallory and Asher Green-Kyedehl Hutlberg qualified in doubles.
"I like our depth," Lunak said. "Our top seven have been really solid this year. All of them have come up with big wins throughout the year. We can trust them all."
When: Thursday-Saturday.
Where: Choice Health and Fitness.
Quarterfinals: GF Red River (No. 1 East) vs. Bismarck Century (No. 4 West); Mandan (No. 2 West) vs. WF Sheyenne (No. 3 East); Minot (No. 1 West) vs. Fargo Davies (No. 4 East); GF Central (No. 2 East) vs. Bismarck Legacy (No. 3 West).
RR individual qualifiers: Espen Schneider (No. 4 East singles), Jadon Tang (No. 7 East singles), Kellen Johnson-Julian Mallory (No. 2 East doubles), Asher Green-Kyedehl Hultberg (No. 7 East doubles).
GFC individual qualifiers: Cole Wilber (No. 1 East singles), Evan Panzer (No. 2 East singles), Jason Ling-Hanson Du (No. 6 East doubles).
