Hersey senior Mitch Sheldon began playing tennis at a very early age.
It was before he learned to read.
“I started around 3 or 4,” Sheldon said. “My brother (Max) and I picked it up early.”
That isn’t surprising considering his mother, Christine, played at Wisconsin, and his father, Walter, played at Western Illinois.
A bit shocking is how early Sheldon tired of the sport.
“I tried playing 10-and-under tournaments when I was really young, but I didn’t like it,” he said. “I guess I maybe got burned out at a young age. I would play maybe once a week just for fun.”
Sheldon’s attention was elsewhere when he was in grade school.
“I was really focused on baseball,” he said. “I played lacrosse for a year and a half, and I was super focused on that.”
But that didn’t last.
“All of a sudden, I just went back to tennis,” Sheldon said. “I went full-on for tennis in seventh grade.”
Whatever rekindled Sheldon’s interest in tennis lit a flame that ignited a terrific high school career. Sheldon capped it with a dominant performance at the state meet, where he won the Class 2A singles championship with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Hinsdale Central senior Alex Kotarski at Palatine on May 25.
The top-seeded Sheldon (36-1) lost only 13 games while winning all six of his matches at state in straight sets.
The victory puts Sheldon, who won the doubles state title as a sophomore with Kacper Pasielak and finished fourth in singles last year, in rare company. He is just the seventh player in the history of the Illinois High School Association’s state tournament, which began in the 1911-12 school year, to win both singles and doubles championships.
Five of the other six players did it before 1935. Three of them won both of their titles in the same year, which is no longer allowed.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Sheldon said. “I didn’t expect any of this. Obviously, I had the goal of winning singles, but I didn’t really notice how much I’ve done in my high school career until after it was all done. It’s really cool to have two state titles.”
Hersey coach Andy Walton said Sheldon’s dalliance with baseball and lacrosse actually was a good thing.
“For younger kids, it’s important that they see all the different sports,” Walton said. “The Sheldons are awesome people. They’re a great family and certainly gave their kids opportunities to do everything else. But at the end of the day, they kind of fell in line with the family business. They fell in love with tennis, and it’s a great thing.”
Indeed, both Sheldon brothers reached the highest levels of the high school game. Max Sheldon was the Class 2A state runner-up in singles in 2019 and 2021 and has continued his career at Michigan State, where he will be a senior in the fall.
Mitch Sheldon also will play for the Spartans and hopes to team with his brother in doubles. It all sounds so easy, but the reality is much different.
“Mitch is the hardest-working kid I have ever seen,” Walton said. “Everyone sees him hitting the ball and sees the serve and pushing people around on the court, but what they don’t see is all the stuff that went in behind it.
“The guy hits three hours a day and then comes and never misses our Hersey practices. Even though he’s hitting with a pro or a higher-level USTA kid to keep pushing himself, he’ll always make our practices for another two to three hours.”
There are times Sheldon doesn’t enjoy it, but he remains driven.
“I’m pretty tough on myself overall,” he said. “I do like doing it, but there are times where I’ll go out to practice and be like, ‘Oh, I really don’t want to do this right now.’
“But I’m really self-motivated. I just want to be the best I can be. I just want to keep getting better.”
Even if he’s already reached the top of the mountain.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m winning tournaments,” Sheldon said. “Even the first day after I won state, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I won state. Well, what’s next?’ It’s a progressive mindset, always motivated to do something more.”
In that way, he’s a little bit like Rafael Nadal. Both hit left-handed and are relentless in pursuit of greatness.
“He is a trademark lefty,” Sheldon said. “I also like his mentality of always fighting, never give up, never letting things get in your head.”
Sheldon, of course, is nowhere near the level of Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam singles champion and the greatest lefty in the history of the sport.
“He’s more of a grinder,” Sheldon said. “He’ll stay out there for 10 hours if he needs to and play crazy points. I’m less patient. I’d say I’m kind of a mix between Ben Shelton and Rafa because I will play long points but I’ll also kind of go for stuff. It depends.”
The recent singles final between Sheldon and Kotarski was a rare instance of two southpaws playing for a state title. Sheldon also beat another left-hander, Hinsdale Central junior Nathan Hernandez, 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals.
Do left-handers have an advantage?
“Oh, yeah, 100 percent,” Sheldon said. “The serve comes in a different way. Your opponent doesn’t see it often, so they’re not used to it.”
Sheldon takes full advantage of that.
“My serve is best,” he said of his repertoire. “My kick serve, I’ve kind of got it to the point where it bounces so far to the opposite way, I can hit second-serve aces if I need to.
“My groundstrokes are super heavy with spin and a lot of pace, so I can pin people back at the baseline and not let them come forward.”
So how good can Sheldon be going forward? His brother’s career arc may hold a clue.
“We saw this with Max when he went to Michigan State, and I think we’re going to see it with Mitch too,” Walton said. “Mitch has been working a lot on his conditioning, but I don’t really think he’s hit the weights heavy.
“Once Mitch starts to hit the weights like Max did when he went to college, he’s got a frame that can handle more muscle. He hits a really big, heavy ball right now. I’m just super excited to see what a year of college lifting does for his game.”
Sheldon, who plans to study business at Michigan State, doesn’t have any particular career goals.
“Just wherever my skill takes me,” he said. “There is always a way to get better, so if I have the opportunity, maybe go pro after college. That would be the end goal, but obviously it’s going to be super hard.”
That’s never been a deterrent for Sheldon, who has made a habit of raising his game as well as his team. He led the Huskies to a second-place finish in 2A with 28 points, eight behind Hinsdale Central, which won its third consecutive team title. New Trier’s Chris Ackerman and Jovan Morales won the 2A doubles title.
It was the first state trophy in program history for Hersey, just another accomplishment for Sheldon to enjoy.
Which he did, for a while.
“The last two days, me and my friends have just been kind of celebrating nonstop,” Sheldon said last week. “I’m still riding high from it, but I have to start back up again in probably a couple days.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
