LA CROSSE — A tennis conversation with Aquinas High School senior Anderson Fortney easily turns into a lesson about the sport.
And that is fascinating after he tells you he didn’t take his participation very seriously until his freshman season with the Blugolds. He said that dedication jumped again between the time he was a sophomore and junior.
So when he talks strategy and mental approach and the little things he concentrates on during matches like an expert, it hardly seems fair that he could already understand the game so thoroughly.
“It’s like a puzzle,” he said of winning a match. “You need all the pieces to beat somebody, and I’ve practiced so hard and so much the last couple of years that it feels like I’m thinking about it all the time.
“It feel like every second, there is something about tennis in my head.”
Fortney will complete a memorable career this weekend at the WIAA Division 1 individual state tournament in Madison. He qualified for the Division 2 state singles bracket three times — he finished third in each of the past two years — before the Blugolds bumped up to Division 1 this spring.
But a 30-3 season gives him a new opportunity, and he tackles a new bracket as its No. 10 seed.
Fortney draws Monona Grove senior Nathaniel Posset (18-8) in a first-round match at 11:45 a.m. Thursday. A win there moves him to the second round against either Oshkosh West sophomore Jacob Stinski (20-11) or Appleton West junior Cale Vogel (22-3) at 4:30 p.m. His quarterfinal would be at 10:45 a.m. Friday.
Rest assured that Fortney will be ready to dissect each one of those opponents when he takes the court. He will spend as much time as necessary to find a weakness and exploit it in order to advance.
The ability to do that has come working with coaches Ian Napiorkowski — from the La Crosse Country Club — and Wyatt Lippert, Mary Hurley and Josh Christenson — all from the Rochester Athletic Club — and Aquinas coach Kevin Roop.
The Nielsen Tennis Stadium is a comfortable venue for Fortney, and all of the extraneous factors that could impact opponents off the court shouldn’t be an issue for him. That allows him to concentrate fully on the player lined up across from him.
“It’s all about knowing what to do and when to do it,” said Fortney, who takes a 105-16 career record to the tournament.
He learned some of that during many matches and hitting sessions with friend Kyle Hehli of West Salem. The two will play together at UW-La Crosse, where Kyle’s dad, Bill, is the coach.
Hehli is a Division 2 state qualifier and is seeded second in his bracket. Fortney beat Hehli in three sets during the third-place match a year ago, and that victory is one he plays back in his head when needed.
“I had lost my semifinal match, and I was tired and angry,” Fortney recalled. “The first set wasn’t going my way, and I had a bad attitude. I lost that set and was down 4-1 in the second set.
“That’s when I thought about all the training I’d done and the mental toughness I focused on, and it snapped me back into reality.”
Those kinds of moments could be needed during the ups and downs of a state tournament.
Fortney also heads to the tournament carrying the family flag. The Fortneys have been mainstays at this competition.
Not only is this Anderson’s fourth state tournament — he also played in three team state tournaments — but his sister Kate also won more than 100 matches for the Blugolds and was Division 2 state runner-up in the fall. Brother Mitchell — the three are triplets — also played in three team state tournaments and was 31-2 at No. 2 singles this season.
“When they play, I’m usually just watching, not pacing or anything,” Fortney said. “It was nice to watch my sister play for a championship and use that to get another taste of the atmosphere.
“When I watch them play, I’m still looking at specific situations and what happens. I watch it for them and for me and to figure out how something worked or how it didn’t.”
Fortney is joined in the Division 1 brackets by junior teammates Jaedan Silcox and Tegan Schott and Holmen senior Brandon McCormick.
Silcox and Schott (17-3) play Madison West’s Grant Shadman and Brandon Royalty (14-3) in a first-round doubles match Thursday at 1:30 p.m., and McCormick (16-5) squares off with West De Pere’s Liam Hankel (32-1) at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
Central junior Drake Wonderling and sophomore Mitchell Lund are also Division 1 doubles qualifiers with their record of 18-3. They team up to play Neenah’s Andrew Werner and Brady Lawatsch (21-10) in Thursday’s 2 p.m. first round.
