‘It’s a shindig’: Tennis duo riding wave of nation’s top ranking into News Journal tourney

LEXINGTON – You don’t become the nation’s No. 1 doubles team in your age group without knowing everything about each other’s tennis game.

Or, apparently, each other’s tennis history.

For instance, it was 32 years ago this summer when Jay Harris won the first of his six men’s singles titles in the News Journal Tennis Tournament.’

And nobody knows that better than partner Will Calhoun.

Because Harris won’t let him forget.

It was Calhoun who was on the wrong side of Harris’ milestone 7-6, 6-4 victory in 1991. But he didn’t know how wrong until these two former Mansfielders joined forces last September to play the national circuit in 50-and-over doubles.

Since the merger, Harris has texted the newspaper account of that title win to Calhoun several times, just to rub it in. He even attached  a copy of the clipping to a recent Facebook post announcing they had officially risen to No. 1 in the USTA 50-and-over rankings.

Cyber bullying is certainly a novel way for Harris to pump up his partner as they prepare to play in the open division of men’s doubles in the 90th News Journal Tournament next weekend.

It will be their first tourney together since becoming No. 1 in the country and marks Calhoun’s return to NJ competition for the first time in 27 years.

“We need to have the talk with Jay about the reason of the laurel wreath, which the Olympics used to give their Olympic victors,” Calhoun said. “It was a laurel wreath because it died and faded and you had to keep achieving. You couldn’t rest on your laurels.

“We need to tell Jay you can’t rest on that article the rest of your life.”

And then Calhoun laughed.

Obviously, knowing not to take yourself too seriously is another winsome quality of a top-shelf tandem.

Besides, if Harris had decided to rest on his laurels as one of the greatest men’s singles champs in the history of “the NJ,” the two of them wouldn’t be where they are today – staring down at every other doubles team in the 50s rankings.

‘Tennis comeback” behind this pairing

They’ve won three titles together and finished runner-up, fourth and fifth in their three other appearances.

It’s a collaboration that probably never would have happened if Harris hadn’t made what he calls a “tennis comeback” by playing in last year’s News Journal for the first time since 2016.

Just a few days before turning 51, he reached the men’s singles quarterfinals, where he battled for four hours before falling to Justin Csepe, a teaching pro in Wooster, 7-6, 6-7, 12-10.

Even though it wasn’t the outcome Harris wanted, it got his competitive juices flowing again, prompting a Facebook post where he encouraged all alumni of the News Journal Tournament to play or at least reconnect in 2023, turning it into a truly special 90th birthday celebration.

He was just pulling into the driveway on his trip back home to Long Island when his phone rang. It was Calhoun.

“We hadn’t spoken in a long time,” Harris said. “He was like, ‘Hey, if you’re serious about the News Journal, if you’ll play doubles with me, I’ll come back.’ I got all excited, but I probably should have asked him first, do you still play tennis?

“He said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been playing a lot of national tournaments.’ Then he said, ‘You know, since you asked, why don’t we take it a step further? Why don’t you play some of the nationals with me?’ It didn’t take much arm-twisting for me to say yes.”

Their first tournament together was the National Grasscourts in Rhode Island, ironically, held at a club where Harris’ son, Jackson, works. They finished a very respectable fifth, losing to the team that won it all.

“I also made it to the quarterfinals in singles, losing to one of the top guys in the country,” Harris said, “and I’m thinking, all right, that’s a good start.”

Their first title came at the National Indoors in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. They also met in the singles semifinals there, with Calhoun going on to win the title and Harris finishing third.

Their most recent doubles titles came at the Rhode Island Championships, a national-level tourney that attracted some of the top players along the Eastern Seaboard. They won the 45-and-over and 50-and-over divisions.

“For two boys from Mansfield, we feel pretty good about how we’ve done,” Calhoun said. “To give you an idea of the quality of these tournaments, almost everyone ranked is a former Division I college player, and there’s also all these old pros who come back to play.

“For example, we lost in the finals in a tournament in Atlanta to a guy who played in the Olympics for Ireland and was on the pro tour, and his partner had over 40 national titles. In that same tournament was Rick Leach, who played for his dad at USC and has nine Grand Slam doubles championships.

“These tournaments are really fun. They’re held at these beautiful clubs. The competition is really stiff. It’s a shindig. For two Mansfielders to be hanging in there and ranked with these guys from California, Florida and Texas, we feel a humble pride.”

Squeezing tennis into busy schedules

What’s crazy is that both men had enough on their plates before adding tennis to the mix.

Harris, a 1989 Lex grad and former men’s tennis head coach at Bowling Green and Brown, is a general manager and tennis director for Sportime New York. Sportime owns 15 tennis clubs in NY and the John McEnroe Tennis Academy is part of three of those clubs.

The newest McEnroe Academy will set up inside the Port Washington Tennis Academy, which was one of the first tennis academies in the world. Sportime recently purchased it and is sinking millions into renovations. When it reopens in the fall, Harris will be one of the people in charge.

Harris also plays in two basketball leagues, including Ultimate Hoops, where he has been part of 19 championship teams.

Calhoun, a 1985 St. Peter’s grad, practiced law for 25 years before leaving to “scratch an entrepreneurial itch.” He lives in Chapel Hill, N.C. and runs four businesses, including a glass fabrication company, a vocational school and a real estate holding company.

“I have these crazy things that have been fun and entertaining and stressful at the same time,” he said. “I didn’t play much tennis after leaving BYU (he was a two-time Academic All-American at Brigham Young). From 1996 to 2016, I’d be surprised if I played more than once a year. But after I was able to control my schedule a little bit more with these entrepreneurial adventures, I got back into it.

“There are a lot of good college players and former pros at the club in Chapel Hill where I play. I got in with them and started playing tournaments. It’s been really fun and rewarding to be back in it.”

Calhoun believes there are three factors at play in the success he and Harris have had as a duo.

“One, I would describe both of us as cerebral players,” he said. “There’s guys who have a lot more natural talent, but Jay has his dad’s coaching (John Harris was the boys head coach at Lexington High School and an assistant at Lakewood Racquet Club) and natural intelligence, really amplified by his time at Brown as head coach and the time he’s spent working with the McEnroe Academy.

“Jay thinks strategically and picks up on patterns. He’s always in the right place on the court and I’m usually in the vicinity of being in the right place. So we both think well on the court and we complement each other in that regard.

“Two, we’re both ridiculously competitive. I’ve tried to tone that down as I gotten older, but we’re both on the upper end of the distribution curve. As an example, when we were in (Lancaster) we were in different hotels. And before our semifinal match against each other I asked Jay if he wanted me to pick him up to go to the courts. There was a pause. Then Jay said, “Knowing both of us, one of us is not going to want to ride home with the other after the match. Let’s take separate cars.

“Third is our complementary styles, Jay being left-handed and me being right-handed,” Calhoun said. “He probably has better groundstrokes; I probably have better volleys. So we’re able to complement each other well.

“We can joke with each other, we can lift the other up when one’s not playing well, we can be patient … and still competitive.”

They instantly clicked

One of the reasons Harris likes to share the press clipping of his win over Calhoun is not only to tease him but to pay tribute to a guy he saw as a mentor.

“That win back then was a big win for me because I beat this older, really good player I looked up to,” Harris said. “Just knowing who he is, I was looking forward to reconnecting with him. Once we got on the court, I instantly felt like we would be at a good level. There was this quick,  mutual respect we had going.

“There were some things we had to figure out, but just because we had that bond as kids it didn’t go away. That was the biggest thing. And I think we just really enjoy playing together. Every time we’ve played together, I’ve had a blast. Even in some of our losses, I’ve had fun, which is hard for me to say.”

While Harris’ parents, John and Chriss, still live in Lexington, Calhoun no longer has any family in the area. Being around Harris, and his sons, Jackson, 21, and Mason, 17, and Harris’ fiance, Sharon Rappaport, the defending women’s singles champ, will help fill that void during this trip to his hometown.

Harris’ sister, Nickie Gibbs, is also coming in from Kansas, along with her daughter, Jensen, one of the top high school players in the state. Gibbs and her brother are administrators of a Facebook page devoted to the 90th News Journal Tournament.

“My mom just passed away in January, and it makes me sad not to have those familial ties,” said Calhoun, who with his wife, Pargie, has three children, including a rising volleyball star who he said might be the best athlete in the family. “I’m really looking forward to being back, not only visiting my parents’ graves, but to reconnect with people who have been important to me throughout my life.

“I’ve always liked Jay and I love his dad and mom. His dad was such a key factor in the coaching I got at Lakewood, along with Ron (Schaub, tournament director and Lakewood teaching pro), when I was in high school and home from college in the summer.

“One of the characteristics I love about Jay is that we can pick up, even after years, where we left off. That’s been awesome beyond words and being with someone from my hometown and getting to know his boys has been rewarding in ways I didn’t anticipate.”

Harris loves to reflect on the history of the News Journal Tournament and is working on a couple of plaques honoring all of the men’s and women’s singles champions since its inception in 1934 to hang inside Lakewood. If his count is correct, he owns 33 titles, which covers competition in juniors and adults.

He’d love to add a 34th with Calhoun. That would likely produce a news clipping they’d both want to share.

“It’s been super motivating knowing I have to be ready for this tournament,” Harris said. “I’m playing with Will, and I can’t let him down.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: ‘It’s a shindig’: Tennis duo riding wave of nation’s top ranking into News Journal tourney