'Almost A Miracle'
BUTLER TWP — A weekend of glory.
That's what the Butler High School boys tennis team enjoyed 10 years ago this month, winning the state championship on indoor courts in Hershey.
“It was so improbable, almost a miracle the way it happened,” Golden Tornado coach Dave Hartzell said.
The championship marked Butler's first state crown in 30 years — the gymnastics team winning in 1980. Butler has not had a team state championship team since.
Hartzell retired as Butler tennis coach after the 2019 season.
His team lost to Shady Side Academy, 3-2, in the 2010 WPIAL championship match. Butler came within a whisker of winning that crown.
“Our No. 2 doubles team, Emil Kemp and Kemper May, was playing against a Shady Side duo that hadn't lost all season,” Hartzell said. “It hadn't even dropped a set to an opponent.
“The WPIAL finals were outdoors and it was windy that day,” Hartzell recalled. “We had our guys hit high lob shots across the net to use that wind.
“They (Shady Side duo) were getting frustrated as the wind was playing tricks on the ball. We took them into a third-set tiebreaker before losing, 7-5.”
With the top two WPIAL teams qualifying for the state tourney, Butler began its weekend quest for the title by facing top-seeded Council Rock North.
“I never thought we'd beat them,” Hartzell admitted.
The match was deadlocked 2-2 with Matt Slamecka, Butler's No. 1 singles player, going up against an opponent he had never beaten.
“I was 0-4 against him,” Slamecka said. “This was not supposed to happen.”
But it did. Slamecka scored a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 win and the Golden Tornado advanced to the state semifinals, where they dispatched Radnor, 3-1.
That set up a rematch with Shady Side Academy with state gold on the line.
“We had a lot of good players,” Slamecka said. “We had to find three wins from somewhere.”
Slamecka himself lost to Chris Mengel, considered the No. 1 high school player in the eastern region that year. Mengel went on to play tennis at Duke University.
Butler still hung in the match. Evan Kowalski won at No. 2 singles. Zac McCafferty and Stefan Kemp won at No.1 doubles.
“Their No. 2 doubles team was ready for us in the rematch and it was indoors,” Hartzell said. “They won handily.”
The Tornado's fate came down to the No. 3 singles match — Butler's Will Nesbitt against Alok Nimgaonkar. Nesbitt dominated him in the WPIAL finals, winning 6-2, 6-1.
This match was different.Nesbitt won the first set 7-6, dropped the second set 6-1 and was involved in a tight third set.“Matches go on at the same time in tennis, so I wasn't sure if my match meant anything or not,” Nesbitt said of his mind-set while he was playing. “After a while, I noticed a lot of people standing around, cheering each point.“I figured our match had to mean something.”Nesbitt said he felt no pressure, however.“Too much adrenalin going on,” he said.Nesbitt was a sophomore. He went on to win the WPIAL singles title as a junior and senior.But no match was bigger than this one.“Definitely nerve-wracking,” Kowalski said. “It was more stressful watching that than it was when I was playing my match.”“They were on the court for a good hour after we were done,” May said. “Everyone was crowded around watching ... I give Will a lot of credit for the way he handled himself.”The third set went to a tiebreaker. Nesbitt battled back from a 3-5 deficit to get even.He served an ace for the tiebreaking and state-title winning point.Sort of.“The ball landed an inch or so out of bounds,” Hartzell said. “For the state playoffs, they had an official on the side of the court to watch for things like that. I was surprised he let it go.”Nesbitt said the official was there “to over-rule a call if the receiving player called a ball out that was actually in.”Nimgoankar called Nesbitt's shot in.“I thought my serve was out,” Nesbitt admitted. “Alok and I were good friends. He wasn't gonna call it out and win like that ... not on a shot that close.”Butler had its state championship.“It was hard to believe we pulled it off,” Slamecka said. “We had two huge upsets that weekend.”Of course, players have since gone their separate ways.Slamecka is a tennis pro at Pittsburgh Golf Club in Squirrel Hill. Kowalski is a logistics officer in the Army, based in Virginia, and is getting ready to transition into law school.Nesbitt is a physician's assistant in Reading, Calif. May is a pharmacist in the North Hills.Hartzell has retired and his assistant coach, Alisa Green, still coaches the Butler girls team.“I was a senior that year,” May said of the state title season. “Everything just came together for us. What a memory that will always be.”Butler finished 4-8 in the seniors' freshman season. The team steadily progressed from there and finished 22-1 in 2010.“I look back on that so fondly,” Kowalski said of the state championship. “Nobody saw that coming. It wasn't a big sport like football or basketball, but it was a state championship.“It was still a major accomplishment. That is for sure.”
