The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 — 9
‘M’ navigates past ranked opponents
to begin shortened season
With
every
other
match
clinched,
Michigan
freshman
Merri Kelly found herself in
a third-set tiebreaker, and all
eyes turned to her. Kelly and
Wisconsin sophomore Charmaine
Seah traded points until Kelly’s
groundstrokes eventually proved
too much to handle, taking a 10-8
victory in the tiebreaker.
The Michigan women’s tennis
team’s return to the Varsity Tennis
Center was flooded with late game
heroics, yet the highlight of the
weekend was the Wolverines’ new
faces and their ability to respond to
adversity.
“I think our freshman class is
as good as any in the country,”
Wolverines’ coach Ronni Bernstein
said. “I see them stepping up and
having a huge impact for us this
year.”
Freshman
Jaedan
Brown
proved
Bernstein’s
point
by
opening her second day of singles
with a dominant first-set win over
Northwestern sophomore Briana
Crowley,
6-0.
Crowley
came
storming back, taking the next set,
6-4, and jumped out a 2-0 lead in
the third. Brown responded by
winning six of the next eight games,
taking a 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 victory.
“(Brown’s) maybe one of our
best,” Bernstein said. “It’s still
early obviously, but with her skills,
I think she could be a great player
for us.”
Freshman Gala Mesochoritou
joined the mix after falling just
short in a crushing 6-7 (4) first-
set
defeat
against
Wildcats’
sophomore
Christina
Hand.
Showing composure beyond her
years, Mesochoritou extended the
match with a gritty 7-5 second-
set victory before cruising 6-2 in
the third, including an emphatic
overhead to finish the match.
Freshman Kari Miller played
with a lead for most of the
weekend, but she handled the
pressure confidently when the
time came. Ohio State junior Kolie
Allen pushed Miller to the brink
on the final day of the tournament,
where Miller found herself down
the majority of the first set before
clawing her way back to tie things
at six apiece.
“(Miller) is going to be really
good and already is,” Bernstein
said. “She doesn’t take a ball off
ever.”
Miller snatched the tiebreaker
7-5 and never looked back en
route to a 6-1 victory in the
second.
Kelly, Brown, Mesochoritou
and Miller combined for an 11-1
record over the weekend in their
singles debut, putting the rest of
the Big Ten on notice.
The Wolverines’ freshman
class
came
in
with
lofty
expectations as highly touted
recruits, but their early success
is a product of more than just
talent.
The
influx
of
freshman
has bolstered a lineup with
experienced,
tested
players
ready
to
lead
their
new
teammates.
Graduate
student
Chiara Lommer’s role on the team
has expanded to far more than
winning matches.
“We talk to our team about this:
(Lommer) doesn’t give up, doesn’t
quit on one point,” Bernstein said.
“She’s an incredible competitor
and it’s awesome for the younger
kids to see that because she wins
by fighting.”
Lommer isn’t just a leader
by example. Her intensity is
commanding and infectious.
“(Lommer) is probably the
best person to play doubles with
because she’s always so positive
with you,” Bernstein said. “I think
it helps (Brown) at moments when
the pressure is on.”
In
matches
defined
by
momentum swings, the young
Wolverines often had their backs
against the wall, but they took it as
an opportunity to showcase their
resolve and relentless effort early
on in Michigan’s season.
“Their tennis speaks for itself,”
Bernstein said. “They fit in and
they work hard.
“Our girls respect them a lot on
the court already.”
Freshmen impress in
Wolverine weekend sweep
Expectedly, the sentence “I’ve
broken my legs around 16 times”
often takes people by surprise.
For
many
who
share
the
unfortunate
commonality
of
having suffered a leg fracture, the
experience is regarded as one of
their most traumatic. The logical,
justified follow-up to such an
incredible statement would be to
explain the ways in which these
fractures negatively impacted their
own life — the frustrations, the
limited mobility, the pain.
For Michigan Adaptive Sports
and Fitness athlete and decorated
grad-student
and
wheelchair
tennis player Chris Kelley — who
has, in fact, broken his legs 16
times — this isn’t the case. Instead,
Kelley quickly follows up with a
qualification designed to illustrate
that he’s come away from these
experiences not with a desire for
sympathy, but a sense of gratitude
that things aren’t worse than they
are.
“I have a pretty mild form of a
pretty severe case,” Kelley said. “It
could be significantly worse than
what it is.”
Kelley
was
born
with
osteogenesis imperfecta, a very
rare genetic disease. Also known
as
‘brittle
bone’
disease,
the
genetic abnormality means that
the production of the structurally
important
protein
known
as
collagen is abnormally produced
in the body. As a result, parts of
the body that depend on collagen
to function properly are negatively
affected, with bones being the
primary example. Those with
osteogenesis imperfecta experience
bone
fractures
at
very
high
frequencies, limiting their ability
to participate in most contact
activities.
“Thankfully, I’ve only really had
it impact my legs. I’ve never broken
my arms and I’ve never broken
a rib, so I’m pretty lucky,” Kelley
continued.
Some of those who have suffered
more severe leg fractures require
what’s called a “rodding” surgery,
wherein a metal rod is inserted
into the leg to stabilize the bone
and reduce the likelihood of future
fractures. The vast majority of those
who undergo a rodding surgery
only ever need one. Kelley has had
four — both of Kelley’s femurs and
tibias are supported by large metal
rods.
Through a combination of innate
talent and sheer determination,
however,
Kelley
has
rendered
these tribulations largely obsolete.
Despite getting a relatively late
start to wheelchair tennis — he
only began to play organized
tennis during his freshman year
of high school — Kelley has forged
an extremely successful career for
himself.
By his junior year of high school,
Kelley was selected to represent the
U.S. Junior team at the World Team
Cup, one of wheelchair tennis’s
biggest international showcases.
He performed well and was
subsequently asked to be part of the
United States Developmental team,
putting Kelley in a prime position
to eventually be promoted to the
men’s national team, the pinnacle of
wheelchair tennis in the U.S.
“He can definitely be a part of our
team USA that goes and represents
us as part of the World Team Cup
for the men’s team,” one of Kelley’s
national
team
coaches,
John
Devorss, said. “He’s dedicated, he’s
a great competitor and he works
hard, so time will tell.”
Upon obtaining his bachelor’s
degree in social work from Grand
Valley State University, Kelley
decided to take some time before
returning to school for his master’s
degree to fully immerse himself in
the world of wheelchair tennis.
“It was definitely one of the most
fun gap years that I think anybody
could have,” Kelley said with a grin.
During that time off, Kelley
crisscrossed the U.S., competing in
tournaments in places like Oregon,
California
and
Florida.
With
each match, his reputation as a
formidable competitor grew.
“He had an absolutely fabulous
year,” Craig Kelley, Chris’s father,
said. “Less than six losses the entire
season. It was tremendous.
By the end of 2019, Kelley ranked
second in the United States Tennis
Association’s Men’s A division
for wheelchair tennis. Soon, he
planned to move into the Men’s
Open division, the most prestigious
international division in the sport.
As a part of the Open division, Kelley
would be competing alongside
athletes like Shingo Kunieda and
Gustavo Fernandez, the world’s
very best wheelchair tennis players.
However, as the year 2020 rolled
around, the COVID-19 pandemic
quickly dashed Kelley’s hopes of
moving into the Open division. His
ascendancy would have to be put on
hold — for now.
With a break in the action, Kelley
decided that it was time to return to
school to obtain his master’s degree
and become part of a collegiate
wheelchair tennis program. Given
his meteoric rise in 2019, he was
hotly recruited by a number of
renowned programs. Among them
was the University of Alabama,
a powerhouse in the collegiate
adaptive sports world and winner
of five of the last seven wheelchair
tennis
national
championships.
Also among them, however, was
Michigan — a program in its
infancy looking to gather enough
athletes to even begin competing at
the national level.
For the extraordinary amount
of work required to overcome the
hardships he’d faced up to that point,
Kelley certainly would have been
forgiven for opting for the easier
route and joining the established
Alabama program. After all, their
recent record imparts little doubt
that they’ll be among the favorites
to win the wheelchair tennis title
for years to come.
Instead, he chose Michigan.
Kelley chose the project.
“I saw the University of Michigan
not only as a way to be an adaptive
athlete, but also as a way to help
grow the program into being one of
the best in the nation,” Kelley said.
And maybe fate played a bit
of a role. Shortly after his first
e-mail correspondence with Dr.
Feranmi Okanlami, the Director
of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports
and Fitness program, Kelley was
flying home from a tournament in
New York. After passing through
security, a voice from behind asked,
“Hey, are you Chris Kelley?”
Startled and slightly unnerved
at being referred to by name
immediately after a typically uneasy
TSA encounter, Kelley turned to
find none other than Okanlami.
“After that, I thought maybe
Michigan is the place where I’m
supposed to be,” Kelley said.
Although the lack of competitive
opportunities in 2020 was a
disappointment, it wasn’t the end
of the world for Kelley. With his
now-slender schedule, Kelley set his
sights on a different pursuit: finding
ways to help expand access to sports
for individuals with disabilities.
When one hears of a story like
Kelley’s — a highly talented athlete
arriving late on the scene yet still
managing to rapidly ascend the
ranks of their sport — one question
begs to be answered. Why didn’t
they start sooner?
In Kelley’s case, and in the case
of so many other athletes with
disabilities, the answer seems to
be that they simply didn’t know
that opportunities for them to
participate
in
sports
existed.
Despite their good intentions,
Kelley’s elementary and middle
school physical education teachers
often simply didn’t know how to get
him involved safely.
“Giving
P.E.
teachers
and
educators the tools to introduce
adaptive sports to students with
disabilities is a huge part of it,”
Kelley said.
“The
other
main
one
is
physicians,” Kelley added. “I was
diagnosed at the age of two. I had
doctor’s appointments constantly,
and I don’t remember a physician
ever mentioning that adaptive
sports were a possibility.”
Kelley is convinced that this can
be remedied. Over the summer,
Kelley worked closely with Adaptive
Sports and Fitness staff members
to develop the ASIRI project, a
collaboration with Project Healthy
Schools to develop a more inclusive
physical
education
curriculum.
The curriculum aims to embed
adaptive
sports
and
inclusive
recreation programming into the
physical education experience of
young students with and without
physical disabilities across the state
of Michigan.
After he completes his master’s
in sports management, Kelley
hopes to continue working with
the Adaptive Sports and Fitness
program full-time.
“One of my main goals is to grow
adaptive sports at the university
level, so I want to find ways to get
involved and stay involved as much
as I can,” Kelley said.
While Kelley aims to continue
to expand access to sports for
individuals with disabilities by
developing more projects like the
ASIRI project in the future, his true
passion lies elsewhere — coaching.
“I’ll look for adaptive sports
jobs first with the hopes of finding
something where I can either
develop a program or do some
diversity, equity and inclusion
work,” Kelley said. “But if I can
coach out on the court for even one
day a week, that fills my bucket. It’s
my dream job.”
Kelley has been coaching tennis
for nearly as long as he’s been
playing. In high school, Kelley got
his first taste of coaching while
helping out with local children’s
programs. Throughout his time at
Grand Valley, Kelley subsequently
expanded his coaching to include
adult classes at a nearby tennis club.
Since then, Kelley hasn’t been
able to get enough of it — he’s traveled
across the Midwest with the United
States Tennis Association to lead
wheelchair tennis clinics, taken
on the role of coach for Mary Free
Bed Rehabilitation Hospital’s youth
wheelchair tennis team and has
spent a year as the assistant coach
of a high school varsity tennis team.
“I love that he’s somebody who’s
teaching both kids and adults, both
able-bodied and in wheelchairs,”
Devorss said. “Truly, that’s an
amazing thing. It’s rare.”
Kelley’s coaching acumen is
bolstered by support from his
father, Craig, an experienced tennis
coach with a degree from Ferris
State University in Professional
Tennis Management. The two have
coached alongside each other at a
number of camps, allowing Kelley
to draw directly from the wisdom
of his father.
“He’ll even help me too, at times,”
Craig Kelley said. “He’ll say ‘Hey, I
think you might be being a little
too firm with the kids.’ It goes both
ways.”
From his many years of coaching,
Craig Kelley has come to realize the
most important concept to instill
in the minds of young players, a
concept Chris has already taken to
heart in his own coaching.
“Above anything, it’s the love of
the game,” he said. “You want to
make sure that you keep the spirit
within them, making sure that they
want to come back and play day
after day.”
Added Chris: “It’s important
to realize that sport is supposed
to be a good opportunity to grow
a community and to get physical
activity. It’s not life or death.”
One day, Chris Kelley admits,
there’ll come a point in time
when continuing to compete will
no longer be an option. Years of
swinging a racket with extreme
force will mean Kelley’s shoulder
cuffs and wrists will deteriorate.
Eventually, his body simply won’t
be able to sustain the wear and tear
any longer.
Before fully setting his sights
on coaching, however, there’s one
thing Kelley is adamant about
accomplishing.
“I
want
that
national
championship ring,” Kelley said.
ALEX WALKON
Daily Sports Writer
PHOTO COURTESY OF GRAYSON BUNING
Chris Kelley has fast risen to the top of wheelchair tennis’s rankings.
Diving
head-first
into
the
season,
the
No.
9
women’s
swimming and diving team (2-0)
put critics’ questions to bed with
a convincing double dual meet
performance.
The Wolverines reigned over
No. 20 Indiana (1-1) and No. 24
Northwestern (0-2) on Saturday
as they beat the Wildcats 185.5-
112.5 and outpaced the Hoosiers
174-126. Michigan dominated the
freestyle events in its first meet
since the Big Ten Championship
last February.
Senior Sierra Schmidt and
sophomore Kaitlynn Sims placed
first and second, respectively,
in
the
1000-yard
and
500-
yard freestyles. Junior Maggie
MacNeil took home first in the
200-yard freestyle, while senior
Daria Pyshnenko won the 50 and
100-yard freestyles. MacNeil and
Pyshnenko — along with freshman
Sophie Housey and junior Olivia
Carter — teamed up for first in the
400-yard freestyle relay.
While MacNeil is no stranger
to freestyle events, she does not
regularly swim the 200-yard
freestyle for the Wolverines. Her
victory was quite special against
swimmers who train specifically
for the event.
“(MacNeil’s
200-yard
performance) was something that
coach Rick Bishop did to win the
200-yard
freestyle,”
Michigan
coach Mike Bottom said. “We’ll
take them where we can get them.
That’s part of being a coach.”
MacNeil was also slated to
swim the 100-yard freestyle, but
Pyshnenko replaced her at the last
minute, making a sacrifice to help
lift her team.
“We had a moment where
MacNeil was supposed to swim
the 100 freestyle and wasn’t
feeling up to par,” Bottom said.
“(Pyshnenko) had to step up to
win that 100 freestyle.”
One of the most exciting races
of the day was the 200-yard
backstroke, in which sophomore
Mariella
Venter,
freshman
Casey
Chung
and
freshman
Sophia Tuinman placed in first,
second and third, respectively.
Chung, Venter and Tuinman also
placed first, second and fourth,
respectively
in
the
100-yard
backstroke.
Carter played a key role for
the team, winning both butterfly
events and the 200-yard individual
medley. In the 200-yard butterfly,
Carter finished more than four
seconds ahead of her opponents.
Slower times were expected
at this meet as the teams placed
focus on the late February Big
Ten Championship, but the effort
clearly remained as the athletes
raced for the first time in what
seems like ages.
Carter praised Housey and
junior Victoria Kwan for the
grueling schedules they faced.
With
Kwan
facing
a
quick
turnaround between the 200 and
100-yard butterfly, she had little
time to recover between events.
Housey took a similar turnaround
in stride, this time just an event
separating her performances in
the 200-yard individual medley
and 200-yard freestyle relay.
Despite
the
Wolverines
facing more of a struggle in
the dive events, some positives
could be taken from the team’s
performance.
Senior
diver
Christy Cutshaw placed fifth in
the 1-meter dive and seventh in
the 3-meter coming back from
an injury, and freshman Taylor
Peters made her debut at the
meet.
Not only does the meet raise
expectations for the rest of this
season, but also for future seasons.
With
underclassmen
playing
a significant role in the team’s
success, this meet showed that
the team possesses the tools to be
a long-term threat for the Big Ten
Championship.
Despite
being
the
first
formal meet since last February,
Michigan looked ready to go from
the start of the day. Whatever
rust existed from the long gap in
competitions seemed negligible
for the Wolverines, who proved to
be a well oiled-machine.
GRAYSON BUNING
For The Daily
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach Mike Bottom saw his women’s team sweep Saturday.
On journey to the top, Kelley paves the road for those behind him
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan freshman Jaedan Brown impressed in her debut for Michigan.
CONNOR EAREGOOD
For The Daily