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Record Newspapers Athlete of the Week: Grady Phillips, Yorkville, tennis, senior · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Record Newspapers Athlete of the Week Grady Phillips, Yorkville Tennis
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  Speaker 1: senior Written by Joshua Welge. This article is being read
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  Speaker 1: by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Name
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  Speaker 1: Grady Phillips, School, Yorkville Senior, Sport Tennis. Why he was selected.
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  Speaker 1: Phillips won the number one singles championship at the Southwest
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  Speaker 1: Prairie Conference Tennis meet and has an eighteen to two
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  Speaker 1: record on the season. With a ten zero record in
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  Speaker 1: SPC regular season matches, He was selected the Athlete of
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  Speaker 1: the Week in an online vote. Other nominees were Yorkville
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  Speaker 1: Track and Field's Aiden Kolkmeyer, Oswego East Baseball's Jackson Tucker,
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  Speaker 1: and Sandwich Track and Field Sunny Weber. Here is phillips
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  Speaker 1: interview with sports editor Joshua Welche. What did it mean
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  Speaker 1: to win conference? What match stood out? Phillips? It meant
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  Speaker 1: a lot to me to win conference. I've put in
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  Speaker 1: a lot of work over the four years of high
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  Speaker 1: school and it finally paid off. My freshman year, me
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  Speaker 1: and my partner got second. Sophomore year I got fourth,
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  Speaker 1: junior year, I got third, and I finally got first
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  Speaker 1: so it meant a lot to finally win. You've obviously
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  Speaker 1: had a dominant season. Any other matches or tournaments stand out? Phillips.
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  Speaker 1: A tournament that stuck out to me was the walbon
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  Speaker 1: Zie Valley Quad. This got quad is full of really
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  Speaker 1: good teams, especially way bound Ze Valley. The last time
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  Speaker 1: I played Walbonzie I lost in singles. This year I
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  Speaker 1: beat their player and after played doubles in which me
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  Speaker 1: and my partner also beat Sycamorees no one doubles. It
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  Speaker 1: was awesome to finally beat Wabonzie because they are also
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  Speaker 1: in our sectional and often win it. What would you
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  Speaker 1: describe as the strengths of your game? Phillips. There isn't
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  Speaker 1: a particular shot in my game that is really my strength.
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  Speaker 1: But if I had to choose something, it would be
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  Speaker 1: my mentality. When something doesn't go my way, instead of
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  Speaker 1: accepting that I'm going to lose, I never give up
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  Speaker 1: or quit. The way my mentality is it allows me
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  Speaker 1: to adapt to different players and their different play styles,
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  Speaker 1: which really helps me beat any player I play. If
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  Speaker 1: I had to choose a shot as one of my strengths,
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  Speaker 1: I would say my serve. I have a bunch of
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  Speaker 1: different types of serves like a flat kick, slice, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: By having different types of serves, it allows me to
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  Speaker 1: set my next shots up and also allows me to
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  Speaker 1: dictate how I want the point to go. I know
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  Speaker 1: you qualified for state and doubles. Have you played both
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  Speaker 1: throughout high school? Phillips? Phillips. I played No One doubles
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  Speaker 1: my freshman year with my senior partner Cal. After that,
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  Speaker 1: there was no one that I really wanted to play
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  Speaker 1: doubles with, so I switched to singles. Since then, I
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  Speaker 1: have been playing No One singles. How and when did
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  Speaker 1: you get started in tennis? Phillips. The way I got
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  Speaker 1: started with tennis was my family friends told me about
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  Speaker 1: the John Stott Tennis Academy. I tried it out for
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  Speaker 1: a week and became hooked. Since then, I've been doing
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  Speaker 1: private lessons with John and have played at the academy
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  Speaker 1: for over four years. Before playing tennis, I played every sport.
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  Speaker 1: I got pretty good at baseball, but I felt it
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  Speaker 1: was boring, so I wanted to switch to a sport
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  Speaker 1: where there's more action, so I chose tennis. What are
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  Speaker 1: some things you love about the sport most Phillips. Some
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  Speaker 1: things I love most about the sport is how quickly
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  Speaker 1: you can go from losing a match to winning a match.
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  Speaker 1: I like how when you are out playing, it's all
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  Speaker 1: on you and the only person to blame if you're
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  Speaker 1: losing is yourself. Like I said earlier, I like the
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  Speaker 1: fast pace of the game and how fast you have
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  Speaker 1: to react for different shots. Lastly, I really like how
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  Speaker 1: every day is different. You could play thousands of matches
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  Speaker 1: and every single one will be different. You never know
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  Speaker 1: what exactly will happen in your match. What's your post
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  Speaker 1: high school plans? Phillips. After high school, I will be
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  Speaker 1: attending Lewis University to dual major in Aviation Technology and
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  Speaker 1: aviation Maintenance. I plan to get all my licensing and
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  Speaker 1: certificates to become a part in the airlines. Throughout college,
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  Speaker 1: I will play club tennis and some other intramural sports.