Mitchell Foland

Nobody thought it could happen...nobody except for Mitchell Foland himself.

The Tecumseh junior and number-one singles player on the Arrows tennis team shocked the region recently at Wittenberg during the Clark County tennis tournament by defeating the heavily-favored Danny Detrick from Shawnee, the top-seeded player in the county 9-7.

It was a memorable day that only saw Foland knock off the perennial favorite, but also survived a damaged racket to get it back in time to pull off the big win.

“This was one of the biggest wins I have ever had in my life,” Foland said. “My eighth and ninth grade years, Danny was the guy that nobody could beat. Everyone in my school was like there was no way you are beating that kid, then it felt great to come back and tell them I had beaten him.”

Foland opened up the county tournament with an 8-0 win over Nick Shonkwiler from Kenton Ridge to set the tone for what was to come. In the county meet, they used pro scoring so the first player to win eight games moved onto the next round.

In the second round, Foland came back with an 8-5 win over an opponent from Northeastern, but the match started out rough for Foland.

“In warmups, I snapped a string of my primary racket and I had to use my backup,” he said. Foland survived that match only to get his main racket back in time for the finals against Detrick.

“My dad called his friend Gary Brewer and had him restring my racket in like 30 minutes and brought it back so I could have it for the finals.”

Foland was down 3-0 and 4-1 in the finals against Detrick before fighting back to make it 4-3 before the Shawnee senior took a 7-5 lead ready to close out the match and win the county meet.

The Tecumseh standout then won the next four points to earn the 9-7 win and the county championship.

“I was down 7-5 and I was nervous telling myself that I had to win the next two games so I don’t lose,” Foland said. “I heard my dad in the crowd tell me to not give up and I kept replaying that in my head. I played more consistent and won the next two games to make it 7-7. I felt like I had all the momentum on my side.”

Now that the Arrows are ready to make their second run through the CBC, they are focused on taking care of business to earn another title to being back to Tecumseh.

Tecumseh as a team has been no stranger to success recently. The Arrows have won consecutive CBC championships, and are the favorites to make it a three-peat again this spring.

“Our team has been solid the past few years, our doubles teams and all three of our singles players have all been great,” Foland said. “This year we came in really talented with our three singles, and our doubles teams are playing really solid especially our second doubles team.”

“We have beaten every team so far in the league, and two of them we beat without our second or third singles players who were on vacation, and we can win it again this year hopefully.”

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