Waite tennis coach Kevin Horn believes senior Shannon Miller is the school’s first girls’ tennis player to win a City League title.

Miller, the second seed, defeated Bowsher's Delanie Garmen, the top seed, 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 1 singles championship match at Jermain Park and has been named City League Player of the Year.

“It seems everyone is making a bigger deal about it than what it is. It feels really good — like I contributed to the school, I guess,” Miller said.

Miller and Garmen have had a duel going all season.

“The first match I played her, I lost, and then when I played her the second time I beat her,” Miller said. “So when I went into the City’s, I knew what I had to do — I knew the strategy and I knew what I could do to make her fault, so that was helpful.”

Waite coach Kevin Horn said, “She’s had a really good season. She started out playing pretty well. She played the girl from Bowsher early in the season and lost in three sets, but she knew she had the ability to beat the girl. When we played them again during the regular season she won that match in three sets, and then in the championship it worked out where they played each other in the final match and she was able to win again for a second time against the No. 1 seed from Bowsher.”

Miller has been playing tennis for six years, but she admits it helps that three Catholic schools and two suburban schools left the league this year. She adds that playing against those schools the previous three years was good preparation.

“Playing against St. Ursula and Notre Dame was an experience. They are way better than me, no doubt, but it definitely helped,” Miller said.

Miller added, “I think that was a big thing for Shannon, especially. Up until this point she had been a little frustrated about playing. Well, to be able to beat the St. Ursula, Notre Dame and Central Catholic kids, but this gives everybody a great opportunity to win. It’s a much more even, level playing field. I think this will help us to get players for next year.

“The thing is its’ a huge difference for the kids from the Catholic schools and the suburban schools, who are playing in clubs from the time they are five or six years old, and we are trying to take kids who have never played before and teaching them on the fly.”

Miller says Horn helped her get to the championship, and Horn also credits avid tennis player Larry Michaels, who is an East Toledo pastor and historian.

“I love playing tennis. I like how one-on-one it is,” Miller said. “He’s (Horn) been really supportive on the court, because when I get down in a game he’s always there to talk me through it and help me. He’ll let me know everything is OK and it doesn’t matter if I won or lost, it’s just a game and that always brings my spirits up.”

Horn said, “She worked harder at changing her style of play and playing the style that she needed to win. Last year, she more relied on her power game and this year she sort of changed her style where she applied some more strategy, making her opponent move on the court a little bit more, in and out, side to side, and it made a huge difference.

“She won’t play college, but she loves it and she goes out and plays,” Horn said. “There is a group of kids on the east side who were taught by Larry Michaels. Larry has done a great job with kids and he has taught Shannon since she was in about the sixth grade. He’s doing really well, and he’s helped me, and he’s done a great job of helping out so he gets a lot of the credit.”

In the Division I sectional tournament, Miller won her first match and then lost to Whitmer’s No. 1 player in the second round.

Waite also had one doubles team, junior Katelyn Hindall and senior Merinda Peryoert, which finished third in the City. Peryoert is an exchange student from The Netherlands.

Bowsher won the CL championship by winning No. 2 and No. 3 singles and both doubles competitions, but Waite finished fourth in the tournament. Waite could not field a complete team during dual meet competition because it had only four players, which hindered chances of winning a team title.

“In a relative sense I would say we did well. If we would have had a full team, I really seriously believe we could have probably challenged for if not won the City League,” Horn said.

The fourth player is Kayla May, a junior who also plays basketball. Two seniors are graduating, two juniors return, and there are no freshman or sophomores on the team. Horn is seeking players who want to play for Waite next year.

“It was a tough thing to do. We’ve tried,” Horn said.

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