Confidence is king as Steere wins singles title and Barrington duo takes doubles crown

PAWTUCKET — There’s no secret as to how Josh Steere went from a player who couldn’t get past the quarterfinals to being a state tennis champion.

It was all confidence.

The Ponaganset senior had it going into the season. It grew as he defeated the state's best, match after match. After dominating play for the first two days at the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Boys Tennis Singles State Championship, Steere’s confidence reached its peak and it showed. His 6-2, 6-0 win over Lincoln’s Camden DiChiara was something he had thought about for years and, with where his confidence was, there was no way it wasn’t going to happen.

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to do the best I could at tennis and, since I got into high school, this has been my dream to be state champion,” Steere said after he had become the first Chieftain since Jared Donaldson in 2012 to win the title. “Luckily, I’m here and I was able to get it in my final year.”

“I knew Josh was going to be a tough competitor,” DiChiara said. “I came in here trying to play my best tennis. I don’t think I played my best tennis, but I think by the second set, I made it a little bit of a competition.”

Barrington’s Gabe Anderson and Bryce Kupperman played with similar confidence but felt a target on their back. That’ll happen when you’re chasing your second straight title. The Eagles’ experience showed, as they beat East Greenwich’s David and Liam Levy, 6-2, 6-2, to become the first doubles team to win back-to-back RIIL doubles championships since 2002.

“This year definitely feels a little bit better,” Kupperman said. “This year I feel like, for me, it was more nerves because it was more pressure.”

More: Here's who is set to meet in Sunday's Boys Tennis Singles and Doubles title matches.

Steere entered the spring as one of the favorites to contend for the title, but it was difficult to see just how good he was until the season started moving.

For the previous three seasons, Steere and the Chieftains competed at the Division II level and, while Steere had success, his road in the state singles tournament wasn’t easy. He made the round of 16 as a freshman and had quarterfinal appearances each of the past two seasons.

When Ponaganset and St. Raphael joined co-ops and moved to Division I — a necessary move with the talent of their singles lineup, which saw both No. 2 Ethan Clegg and No. 3 Travis Chartier reach the round of 16 this weekend — and gave Steere a chance to compete against the state’s best players every match.

As he won matches, his confidence grew. In previous state tournaments, Steere arrived uncertain about the talent he would see and how he would stack up. From Friday to Sunday, Steere arrived at Slater Park knowing exactly where he stood.

“There was definitely a lot of confidence in my playing style,” Steere said. “I knew I could beat all those players because I did it earlier this season. There’s just a little pressure because it’s the final tournament, but I was able to fight through that and on to the victory.”

Sunday's competition was a clinic in championship tennis.

What Steere lacked in experience he made up for with skill and precision. DiChiara, a finalist from last year, had more than a few shots in his bag. Steere had answers for all of them and, once he got rolling, there wasn’t much DiChiara could do.

Steere wasn’t necessarily looking to sweep the first set, but it certainly helped set a tone.

“He came out real hot. I was trying to slow him down and see if I could get a game,” DiChiara said. “It didn’t happen until the first game of the second set, but I didn’t have much to do.”

“I wanted to make sure I was hitting big shots, but I also wanted to make sure I’m not making him not have to play tennis,” Steere said. “I just make sure I make all the shots I have to make but also be aggressive at the same time to make sure he knows he can’t just walk all over me.”

The moment that Steere looked close to be in trouble was in the last game of the match. Up, 5-2, with serve, Steere put himself in a 15-40 hole. He knew he didn’t want to be out there any longer than necessary with a player like DiChiara, so Steere took a breath and refocused.

He hit a big serve DiChiara couldn’t hit back, then came up with a winner to get it to deuce. His last forehand went deep to DiChiara’s forehand side and didn’t come back.

After shaking DiChiara’s hand, he walked over and got a hug from his father, Brian, the Ponaganset coach, as well as St. Raphael coach Scott Corain. Amy Steere made her way from outside the fence to her son to give him a hug as well after her son gave her the best Mother’s Day present she could ask for.

“She got up nice and early and made me some breakfast this morning, even though I’m supposed to do that,” Steere said. “It helped me get this win. She’s always super positive.”

DiChiara handled the loss like a champion. Tennis was his sport most of his life, but had taken a backseat to basketball the last few years. He started to enjoy tennis in a different way and didn’t let the pressure of playing in tournaments get to him.

On Saturday, he had what he called the best match of his career in a straight-sets semifinal win over Barrington’s Luke Sapolsky. On Sunday, he arrived at Slater at 11:42, went through a brief warmup and then did what he could. On this day, it just wasn’t meant to be.

“I was happy about just getting here and having the opportunity to fight for a championship,” DiChiara said.

Anderson and Kupperman weren’t nervous when they arrived at Slater. They had been there before and knew how to handle the pressure.

The things they were unsure about were their opponents. With the Levy brothers playing in Division II, Anderson and Kupperman were going to have to strategize on the fly.

The start of the match was a grind, as the teams split the first six games, but Anderson and Kupperman’s chemistry and experience started to show. They won crucial points to close out the first set and took control of the second before the final point, when Kupperman hit a backhand that wasn’t returned, making the Eagles' duo the first doubles team to go back-to-back since South Kingstown's Mike Collins and Pat Shaughnessy in 2001-02.

“Once we started hitting with them, we noticed that they’re really good at the baseline,” Anderson said. “They lob a lot at the backline and that’s really annoying to hit. We started hitting short to bring them in and, when we hit it off to the side, they would feed us to our volleys and we would put it away.”

“This game was the toughest match of the season,” Kupperman said.

For the Levys, Sunday’s result wasn’t what they were looking for, but they both understood what it meant to have the opportunity to play for the title.

“We got a lot further than I thought we would,” David Levy said. “I didn’t look at ourselves as underdogs, but I think we were because the teams were a lot better than I thought.”

“This is what we’ve wanted to do since a long time ago,” Liam Levy said. “It’s sad we couldn’t win it but we went all this way and we played our best and that’s what we wanted to do.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 2024 RIIL Boys Tennis Championship won by Ponaganset's Josh Steere