OHSAA State Tennis: Leibreich raises the bar at Hillsboro

With a 19-win season and two second-place finishes in the sectional and district tournaments, Hillsboro junior Reese Leibreich has set a new standard for the Hillsboro boys tennis program, being the first tennis player to reach the OHSAA Division II State Championships in school history.

The story on the tennis court for Leibreich is one of opportunity as the junior didn't even play tennis until his freshman year of high school, as he said the reason he began in the first place was friends who were seniors at the time asked him to join the team.

Leibreich, who reached the state tournament in Division II singles, began his tennis-playing career in doubles, but that didn't last long that freshman year as three to four matches into the season he was playing third singles. For the past two seasons, Leibreich has been the Hillsboro first singles player on the court.

"I played my freshman year, and I just played to try it out, and to find out I was good at it … I got lucky," Leibreich said. "Before that year, I never played tennis before."

Hillsboro tennis head coach LaRue Turner told a story about the first time he met Leibreich during his freshman season.

"This was the year we won the SCOL tennis title … here comes this little skinny kid out, and I say to myself 'oh.' I've never seen him before, and I asked him what he wanted to do … Reese said to me … 'I want to play singles.'"

"I told him I wanted to play a varsity match too …" Leibreich said.

"I told him to go play doubles, but a few matches in, he showed so much (improvement) he was playing third singles before long," Turner said.

"It was kind of exciting getting to play singles the first time because I didn't like doubles," Leibreich said. "I want to depend on myself on the court … that's what I like about singles."

Leibreich plays tennis just three months a year, as he is also a member of the high school soccer and basketball teams.

"I really like the sport of tennis," he said. "Seeing how much better I've gotten in three years, and knowing I have a future in it, really makes me want to play more and more … to be the best I can be. I usually only play three months out of the year, so this year I'm going to play all year long and see how much better I can get.

"Tennis is one of my favorite sports to play. I really like soccer a lot, but I'm just not as good at it as I am tennis. If you are watching tennis, it doesn't look as hard, but when you are playing, it's very intense. You are trying to keep your composure and win point after point … points are fought hard. Tennis is very difficult but very rewarding when you win."

Turner describe Leibreich's progression the past three years as "amazing."

"He worked awful hard now … he does have a lot of natural talent, but he's worked awful hard. He stays at it and has a lot of tenacity. He's not going to let you beat him down," Turner said.

This year, Leibreich is 19-1 overall, with his lone loss coming to Miami Trace's Landon Gibbs right before the sectional tournament, and the junior said that loss helped his overall game in the grand scheme of things.

"I only had one loss this season, so it was a pretty good season. This season has been pretty amazing," Leibreich said.

The junior also talked about how he's improved each season.

"I've just gotten bigger, stronger and faster. I've got more consistent with bigger serves, bigger forehands, a more consistent backhand … I hit slices a lot better, and I just have a better mental game," Leibreich said. "To train, I just run some, stay in shape, play a couple practice matches with the people I train in Chillicothe (Tennis Racquet Club) with before I play my first match of the high school season."

When Leibreich realized he earned his spot into the state tournament, he described the moment as "being surprised" because he said he never even thought he could make it to the state level as a junior.

"I never thought I could make it all that way. I didn't expect to make it … it was like a dream," Leibreich said. "It was very intense at the districts. I had to play against kids who were good.

"I honestly never thought I could make it to state. I thought I was going to lose in districts when I got the second seed because people say the No. 1 seeds are the ones who win at districts … but I guess I upset it. It was just kind of crazy."

Playing for a chance to even make the state tournament was fun for the junior first singles player, but getting to that point took some work.

In his first match, he won over Hiland sophomore Braxton Mullet 3-6, 6-2, 6-1. In the semifinal match (championship round), Leibreich (the SE No. 2 seed) defeated East District No. 1 seed Danny Nelson, a junior from West Holmes, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. In what was called the seed round for the state tournament, Leibreich lost in straight sets at 6-4, 6-0 to East No. 2 seed Aaron Ruby, a junior from Cambridge High School.

"I watched the kid play in his first match that I ended up playing. I was pretty nervous and tight going into the first set. I lost my first set, and I knew I couldn't lose the next set or I was done. I didn't let it get to me, and I won the next two sets.

"The next kid I knew had to be good because he beat Landon (Gibbs), and I lost to Landon earlier in the year. I was nervous going into that one too, but I watched him play a little, found his weakness and went after it."

Speaking of the district tournament, Turner gave his view of what he was thinking during Reese's matches.

"He lost that first set on Saturday, and I thought to myself, when he's done this previously, he's bounced back. Again, I'm saying to myself, 'wait a minute, the competition is a little stiffer here,' but again, he came back.

"This season for Reese has been phenomenal. He's overcome some tough competition."

As he gets set to play in the state tournament this weekend, Leibreich spoke about what was going through his mind as the event nears.

"Being consistent is what I want, hopefully winning my match and seeing how far I can get. I'm just amazed I made it to state," he said. "I just love playing tennis … getting out there and playing. It's relaxing.

"This year and hopefully the state experience will give me a lot to work with headed into next season. Gaining this experience, with my teammates with me, it's awesome," Leibreich said. "It will be interesting to see all the other kids at the tournament play tennis and see how good they are. It's nice to know I made it to that level and I get to play against them."

"For Reese, I know the first time out there he'll be nervous, but I'm hoping he'll get that out of the way and get his first victory," Turner said. "Once he does that, I feel he'll be in the swing of things."

All of this comes back to being the first … the first HHS tennis player to achieve the feat of making the state tennis tournament.

"It's weird being the first because everyone else has already had someone make it to state in other sports, it's just weird," Leibreich said. "My coaches (LaRue Turner, Amy Attinger, Aaron Koch) have been a big help with me achieving this."

Turner said Reese has put Hillsboro tennis on the map.

"Two years ago, we weren't having people calling us to get on the schedule. Now we've had people come up to me during matches wanting to be on our schedule," he said. "In terms of trying to build the program here, we are starting with summer tennis with grade school kids through high school in conjunction with the United States Tennis Association.

"We are trying to build the program, start kids out younger so they can progress right to our high school program. We had a lot of excellent matches this year, and I don't think we could have had that type of competition if we didn't have a level of play that warranted that in terms of the kinds of teams we played. I wanted Reese to have enough competition scheduled so that he would have that to help elevate his game."