Tennis has become major player after modest beginning

There was a celebrity sighting at my cleaners on a recent Saturday morning.

Mr. Tennis was there.

"Mr. Tennis," I said. "It's an honor to bring in my cleaning at the same time as you."

I'm not making this up. That's exactly the way the conversation started. You can ask him.

I commented on how good he looked and then asked when was the last time he had played tennis.

"Yesterday," he said. "Got together with Nelson Campbell."

That figures. Mr. Tennis is the Energizer Bunny on the courts. He never stops playing the sport he loves.

I don't know Ken Schaller's age, but he became the varsity tennis coach at my high school when I was a sophomore.

I'm 71. You can take a guess.

There were many people involved in the growth of high school tennis in this area, but I would put Ken Schaller at the top of the list.

Mr. Tennis.

Father of Tennis.

They both sound good.

Everybody involved in the state girls tennis tournament this weekend at Prospect High School and other area sites should pause and say thanks to Ken Schaller.

Everybody involved in the state boys tennis tournament at Hersey in the spring should pause and say thanks to Ken Schaller.

The fact that the Daily Herald area hosts both IHSA state tennis tournaments is a credit to people such as Schaller and Tom Pitchford and Jim Gelhaar and Rick Gablenz and John Novak and Matt Norris and Mary Lou Hundt and Jean Walker and Jean Rezny and, well, you get the idea.

I know some other suburbs might argue the point, but this is the high school tennis capital of Illinois. We should embrace these state tournaments because it's an honor to have them here.

I will make my annual visit to the state finals and marvel once again at the interest in this event and the excitement generated by the singles and doubles matches.

If the weather cooperates, this is one of the most pleasant experiences of my high school sports year. I love to wander from court to court and watch the kids involved in a sport that requires alertness and tactical thinking.

In tennis, everything is in motion, most of the time. The ball. Your opponent. You. Your confidence.

This is a sport that helps you develop a work ethic and discipline and teaches you how to manage mistakes and adversity and accept responsibility.

This is a lifetime sport.

It's hard to believe today that this challenging sport was laughed at in my early high school years.

Anyone for tennis?

That was the standing joke when I entered high school in 1950.

Mr. Tennis changed everyone's thinking.

When Ken Schaller took over as varsity tennis coach at Arlington High School in 1952, he had to start almost from scratch. There was a team, but interest was lagging.

Schaller knew something about challenges. He started playing tennis in a small town when he was 11, and there weren't any adequate facilities.

A boy from college taught him many of the fundamentals, and they built a dirt court so they could play more often.

The high school didn't have a team, so Schaller had to play on his own, and his determination paid off in two trips to the Illinois state tournament.

Schaller had to fight the "sissy" stigma tennis had in the boys program at Arlington in the 1950s. He was helped when some high-profile wrestlers came out for the sport in his early years at the school.

Nobody made fun of a wrestler's decision.

Mr. Tennis always said that if you stick with the game for about a year-and-a-half, you will stick with it for many more years because the sport sells itself.

Schaller built the tennis foundation in this area, and then people like the late Tom Pitchford helped make it grow even more.

Under Pitchford's direction from 1967-78, Arlington's varsity boys tennis team won 113 consecutive matches in the Mid-Suburban League and even got some mention in Sports Illustrated when it hit 100.

The team had a streak in which Arlington swept the conference meet at all levels of singles and doubles for four consecutive years.

The sport has come a long way since those "sissy" days in the early 1950s, and Mr. Tennis deserves an enormous amount of the credit for what we see today.

Maybe there will be another celebrity sighting Saturday morning.

I have some more shirts to bring to the cleaners.