To get a perspective on what it took to win the last four boys state tennis championships, these are the teams coach Jeff Bloomberg’s Catalina Foothills club beat in the finals:
2019: Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep, 17-0
2018: Salpointe Catholic, 15-2
2017: Cave Creek Cactus Shadows, 17-0
2016: Pusch Ridge Christian, 18-0
This wasn’t just a hot streak or some good timing. It was the best beating the best.
When Foothills began the 2020 tennis season last month, the Falcons had won 106 consecutive tennis matches. Nothing I could research keeps a record of such things in Arizona high school boys tennis.
And to make the story even better, Bloomberg, who was hired in January 2016, added to — and then improved — the streak of former Catalina Foothills boys tennis coach Bill Wright, whose last two seasons, 2014 and 2015, resulted in two undefeated state championships and 37 consecutive victories.
“We’ve never lost a match since I’ve been here,” says Foothills senior Brendan Perry. “It’s hard to describe what winning 109 consecutive matches is like. We get a lot of respect. But mostly it was a lot of fun.”
Was?
After Perry and his teammates won the season’s first three matches, extending their winning streak to 109, high school sports in Arizona were canceled. For now, there will be no seventh consecutive state title and no chance to run the winning streak to 123-0.
“I live in Oro Valley and the courts I play on there have been shut down completely,” says Bloomberg, a retired attorney who was a tennis standout at South Dakota State a generation ago. “The courts at Ironwood Ridge High School have been locked up. The courts at Foothills are locked up.”
And Foothills’ streaks have been stalled.
With the exception of the Sunnyside High School wrestling program — 16 state titles in the last 21 years — Catalina Foothills’ boys tennis program is unmatched in modern Tucson prep sports history. From 1958-72, Tucson High girls tennis coach Sue Clark coached 213 consecutive regular-season victories, but, unlike Foothills’ streak of 109 wins, it didn’t include state playoffs.
Three seniors — Perry, Anton Nazaroff, Chris Hupp — won’t be back in 2021 to attempt to extend the Falcons’ amazing winning streak, and that’s yet another regrettable chapter in the closure of organized sports in Tucson and Arizona.
“It’s kind of hit us in stages,” says Bloomberg. “The first wave was that we would be down until April 15. Everybody was hoping we’d be back. We were scheduled to play in a national championship-type of event in Newport Beach, California, with 16 top teams from around the country. The guys had all saved and put money aside to help pay for the trip. We were eager to see how we stacked up against the nation’s best.”
Now it’s just a what-might’ve-been scenario. It’s the same empty feeling shared by potential state baseball title teams at Sabino, Salpointe and Tucson High, and by softball teams at Ironwood Ridge, Salpointe and Canyon del Oro that appeared to be built for deep runs in the state playoffs.
Or imagine track and field athletes like Mountain View senior Johnnie Blockburger, who seemed to be positioned to win state titles in the 100, 200, 400 and high jump, which would’ve created a legacy that would’ve followed him to the UA track program next year and for years to come.
Before the tennis season was shut down, Brendan Perry and his younger brother, freshman Jared Perry, were among the favorites to win the state doubles championship. They won the Kiwanis Invitational last month against the state’s leading contenders. Now Brendan and Jared will be unable to become just the third Tucson brothers in history to win the state doubles title, the last being Salpointe’s Matt and Andrew Dunn in 2012.
“It was really disappointing,” Brendan Perry says. “Jared has the same feelings. We won’t get to play together again representing our school, not just as a doubles team, but with our whole team. We’d looked forward to it for a long time.”
Catalina Foothills’ boys tennis program had won 109 consecutive matches at the time the AIA canceled competition last month. The Falcons got to play in only three matches this season.
The Falcons seniors will scatter. Brendan Perry plans to enroll at Arizona and major in astronomy. He hopes to be part of the UA’s club tennis program.
If Bloomberg is persistent, he may still be able to put together a group of players to challenge and break the state’s record of eight consecutive tennis championships, set by Phoenix Brophy Prep from 1996-2003.
The regulars scheduled to return next season are Jeevaj Bondalapati, Grant Coehn and Krishna Dasika.
“Basically, we have 20 kids with six spots on the varsity,” says Bloomberg. “Usually, the JV kids don’t get to play, but, frankly, because of the strength of the program, we’ve been able to play some of the younger kids. So we’ll be good again. There’s a pride to keep that string going. The kids all keep track of that number.”
When Bloomberg coached his first state championship at Foothills, beating undefeated Pusch Ridge, his players rushed the court to celebrate with one another.
“It came down to the last match and it was a real thrill,” Bloomberg remembers. “That feeling just stays with you. Since Day 1, the first practice this year, it was, ‘OK, we have one goal and that’s to win the state title.’”
Hopefully, the Falcons will be able to resume their count next spring, with the first win being No. 110. Who could forget that?
