For Spencer Heslop, commitment to faith requires 

difficult decisions

For 
Michigan’s 
wheelchair 

tennis team, their competitive 
debut went about as well as 
anyone could’ve hoped. 

In 
the 
team’s 
first 
ever 

appearance at the Collegiate 
Wheelchair 
Tennis 
National 

Championships, the Wolverines’ 
athletes were finalists in the 
team competition and all but one 
of the individual competitions. 
The team racked up other 
accolades 
as 
well, 
bringing 

home 
three 
academic 
all-

American awards in addition to 
Graduate Student Chris Kelley’s 
sportsmanship honor. In doing 
so, Michigan established itself 
as a force to be reckoned with 
on the collegiate adaptive sports 
scene, 
gaining 
respect 
and 

recognition from competitors 
and doubters alike. 

Still, a sense of “What could’ve 

been?” lingers. 

A pesky asterisk sits alongside 

one of the Wolverines’ finalist 

designations. Graduate student 
Spencer 
Heslop 
forwent 
his 

chance to potentially be crowned 
a champion in both his and the 
Wolverines’ 
first 
competitive 

wheelchair tennis appearance. 

Heslop didn’t really know 

what to expect coming into 
the tournament. Primarily a 
wheelchair 
basketball 
player 

— Heslop played basketball for 
four years at the University of 
Illinois — he only began training 
seriously for wheelchair tennis 
within the past year. Truthfully, 
all that mattered to Heslop 
before his debut is that he gave 
it his all.

And that he did. In Tier 2, the 

intermediate-level 
individual 

tier, 
the 
unknown 
Heslop 

shocked his more experienced 
opponents, 
performing 

dominantly in each of his three 
matches. In all, Heslop dropped 
only a single set on his path to 
the Tier 2 final. 

In 
the 
team 
competition, 

Heslop partnered with Kelley, 
Michigan’s 
highest-ranked 

and most experienced player, 

admirably well. The pair blew 

away Biola University’s duo before 

upsetting 
the 
second-ranked 

San Diego State University in a 

thrilling contest, setting Michigan 

up for a final showdown against 

the five-time champion University 

of Alabama. 

But for Heslop, this was the 

end of the road. The Tier 2 trophy 

was handed to Clemson’s Jeff 

Townsend, and Michigan’s Caiden 

Baxter would take Heslop’s place 

in the team final. 

Heslop, a lifelong member of 

the Church of Jesus Christ of 

Latter-Day Saints, is a committed 

observer of the Sabbath. While 

different people and religious 

groups observe the Sabbath in 

different ways, for Heslop, it 

means that he doesn’t study, 

work, or compete in any athletic 

competitions on Sundays. 

“It’s not that he says ‘thou 

shalt not play on Sundays,’” 
Heslop said. “It’s something that 
I’ve chosen to do as a sign of 
my commitment to try to follow 
him, to take a day to try to be a 
little bit more kind, a little more 

loving in terms of reaching out 
to others and helping them feel 
loved.” 

Undoubtedly, setting aside an 

entire day each week to observe 
the Sabbath is a significant 
commitment, 
and 
it 
hasn’t 

come without its challenges 
for Heslop. A lifelong athlete, 
Heslop has sat out a considerable 
number of games throughout his 
life to uphold the commitment to 
his faith. 

“Especially 
when 
I 
was 

younger, it was even harder than 
it is now. It was important for me 
to find out if this is what I truly 
believed, if I was committed to 
this personally,” Heslop said. 
“I did a lot of soul searching. 
But 
ultimately, 
I 
made 
this 

commitment and I feel like I’ve 
become a better person because 
of it.”

So, while Heslop’s decision to 

sit out the Tier 2 and team finals 
may incite disbelief for some, his 
mind was made up a long time 
ago. Going into the tournament, 
Heslop knew that if he played well 
enough to make it to the final day, 

he would have to accept 
finishing as the Tier 2 
runner-up by default and 
watch the team final from 
the sidelines.

For 
some, 
knowing 

that they couldn’t win 
the championship even if 
they played well enough 
to 
deserve 
it 
would 

significantly 
impact 

their performance. But 
for Heslop, competition 
is about far more than 
individual accolades. 

“It definitely weighs on 

my mind a little bit, but at 
the end of the day, it’s for 
the team. In the individual 
competition, I just wanted 
to perform as well as I 
could, and as far as that 
got me, so be it,” Heslop 
said. “And as much I’d like 
to be able to take part in 
the team final, I also know 
that my teammates want 
to and deserve to, and I 
think that strengthened 
my resolve to get us (to the 
final).

“I can’t say that there 

aren’t 
moments 
where 

I 
don’t 
wonder 
‘what 

if’, 
but 
focusing 
on 

those moments doesn’t get you 
anywhere other than in a tougher 
place. So I try to channel that 
energy to being a voice of support 
from the sideline.”

While 
Heslop 
has 
been 

committed 
to 
observing 
the 

Sabbath for a long time now, 
the experience of having to sit 
Sundays out hasn’t become any 
easier. The team, however, stands 
proudly behind Heslop and his 
beliefs.

“We 
talked 
about 
this 

possibility at the beginning of 
the season and they’ve been 
behind me this whole time,” 
Heslop said. “As we ourselves are 
trying to find our recognition 
within the University and in 
our sphere of DEI, they turned 
around and extended that same 
welcoming atmosphere to me as 
far as religion is concerned. 

“That goes a long way into 

demonstrating 
the 
character 

of the people we have on our 
team.”

While Michigan had been 

in talks with the tournament’s 
organizer, the United States 
Tennis Association (USTA), to 
get the finals moved back to 
Saturday, they were ultimately 
unsuccessful. With Heslop on 
the sidelines, Michigan’s Baxter 
and Kelley put up a valiant fight 
against Alabama’s heavyweights 
in the team final, but fell short 
in the end. 

Heslop’s would-be opponent 

in the Tier 2 final, Clemson’s 
Townsend, was willing to try to 
work out a schedule change — 
the two are former teammates 
and members of the same church 
— but concluded that a Saturday 
final would be too quick a 
turnaround time after already 
playing three matches that day 
in the scorching Orlando heat. 

So, 
for 
Heslop 
and 
for 

Michigan, 
despite 
performing 

better than anyone had expected, 
there will always remain a small 
sense of what might have been. 

For Heslop, though, that’s quite 

alright.

“I feel like I left it all out there 

in the matches I got to play in,” 
Heslop said. “I don’t think I left 
anything unsaid, so to speak. And 
that’s what I focus on more — 
what I did accomplish, instead of 
worrying too much about what I 
could have accomplished.”

 GRAYSON BUNING

Daily Sports Writer

Courtesy of Manuela Davies

Spencer Heslop chose faith, forgoing his shot at winning a championship.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS 13

