MILL CREEK — Last year, Jackson’s Michael Chamerski asserted his dominance in Washington state boys tennis, winning the Class 4A singles state championship as a junior.
As a senior, Chamerski has chosen not to play.
With Chamerski not in the equation, who will take over as the top Wesco singles player?
The logical pick would probably be another Jackson senior — Mitch Williamson. Williamson takes over as the No. 1 singles player on the defending state champion Timberwolves and looking to build off of his fifth-place finish at last year’s state tournament.
“I want to place top three or four at state,” Williamson said. “That is my goal. Not necessarily to win it, but get close.”
There is plenty of time for Williamson to work on his goal. While the boys tennis regular season is in the fall, the state tournament is not held until the end of spring sports.
Playing as Jackson’s No.1 singles player will be nothing new to Williamson. He took on that role in his sophomore year when Chamerski also chose not to play. In three years at Jackson, Williamson has a regular-season singles record of 39-1 and 5-0 when competing in doubles. When playing No.1 as a sophomore, he finished the regular season 12-1 and won his next six matches to take the District 1 singles championship. Last year, he was 12-0 as the team’s No. 2 singles player during the regular season and finished 2-1 in both the Wesco playoffs and district tournament — in both cases losing to Chamerski.
As far as building toward improving on last year’s performance, Williamson continues to work hard to attain that goal.
“I have a private coach and so I just take lessons from him,” Williamson said. “I try to play in as many tournaments as I can and just try and get as much experience as I can, especially with national tournaments.”
If Williamson is able to make a return trip to state this year, experience at state will certainly be on his side.
“It will just help me have more confidence in next year’s state tournament,” Williamson said. “And just be ready to face the same opponents from last year. The guy that I lost to, maybe I will play him again.”
The “him” Williamson refers to is Federal Way’s Mitch Stewart, who beat the Jackson singles player 6-0, 6-0 in the first round of last year’s state tournament. Stewart went on to place second, losing to Chamerski in the state championship match 6-4, 6-4. After Williamson’s opening-round loss, he reeled off three straight wins to finish fifth, defeating Alex Vogt of Bellarmine Prep 6-2, 6-2 in the fifth/eighth place match.
Jackson coach David Hutt says that Williamson’s value to the team isn’t just on the court. As one of the team captains, Williamson sets examples of leadership and work ethic for his teammates.
“From my perspective, I work on more than just the tennis,” Hutt said. “I look at Mitch from more of the leadership role of helping the other kids because he is already a good player. And him trying to be a positive influence on the other kids and trying to take on that role more than just being the best in the league.”
Williamson’s leadership and work ethic might be what the Timberwolves need to compete again for the team state championship. En route to winning the team title a year ago, the Timberwolves won 209 of the team’s 229 sets and 104 of the 112 individual matches in the 16 regular season matches.
But in order to be more successful next spring as an individual, Hutt said Williamson needs to work on his strength.
“He needs to lift weights. He is a skinny guy,” Hutt said. “He said he started lifting and in the summer he was gone a lot, but he still lifted a little bit. But during our high school season, now that he is back into school, hopefully he will lift year-round. Hopefully he will really get into a steady lifting program. That is one advantage for Mitch, he has such an upside of getting stronger and bigger because he is such a small guy.”
Williamson isn’t without competition. In Wesco South, Kamiak’s Andrew Lee and Edmonds-Woodway’s Younghan Kim should figure in the equation. In Wesco North, Corey Coombs of Marysville Pilchuck and Snohomish’s Mitch Scott should be tough competitors as well.
Hutt said he doesn’t see Williamson without peers near the top.
“Edmonds has (Andrew Kim),” Hutt said. “On a given day he could beat Mitch. He almost beat Mitch last year. It was close.
“On a given day, he can lose — Mitch can lose.”
But is Williamson the favorite?
“I would say most coaches would say yes,” Hutt said. “How could you not say he is the favorite. He won Wesco and won districts as a sophomore. Last year he was second in Wesco and second in districts, and that was only to Chamerski, who was his own teammate.
“… So I would think, just common sense, I mean obviously he is the favorite.”
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