Chesterton No. 1 doubles players Jake Bell and Shane Henry add I-formation to their quiver and use it to help them to score a point toward Trojans’ 4-1 win over visiting Crown Point

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

For serious high school tennis players, the summer amounts to a quest to find as many matches against talented players as possible, even if it means travelling throughout the state.
Chesterton No. 1 doubles tandem senior Jake Bell and junior Shane Henry, both noticeably better than a year ago, brought back more than memories of a good time from their trips.
They brought back an idea and ran it past coach Tom Bour, who taught them how to implement it and how to counter it.
It’s called the I-formation, wherein one player serves at the hash in the middle of the court and the other is crouching at the net, right in the middle.
“Then, depending on where I serve, the net guy is going to jump to a certain way, catch a volley, and the baseline guy is going to go out the other way to play their position,” Henry said. “We played against it a few times. Around here, your rarely see it, but over the summer we played some tournaments, went down to Southern Indiana, and saw it a lot more down there from some big teams.”
The two Trojans had enough confidence in their ability to learn it that they told Bour they wanted to incorporate it in their games. The coach’s confidence matched theirs and he showed them the finer points of it.
“Early this season, we started trying it out,” Bell said. “Today was the match we used it the most. We’re getting more and more comfortable with it.”
They looked so comfortable using it in Tuesday’s 4-1 win against Crown Point that it made the Bulldogs look extremely uncomfortable trying to defend it.
Bell and Henry repeatedly seared deep, hard shots and very often the returns were so defensive that the ball either fell short and died into the net or had so little on it that either Bell or Henry, whichever player was at the net, scored a quick point on a steep volley.
It made for such an entertaining match that the Bell-Henry cheering section sounded even bigger than it was.
The formation requires even more communication between doubles partners than normal, but that’s no problem since this is their second season as a tandem. When in the I-formation, the player at the net flashes finger signs in much the manner a catcher does to a pitcher in baseball.
The server can shake off his partner with a verbal command, typically, “nope,” or “no.”
“When I’m serving, Jake’s going to call where I’m serving, sometimes what kind of serve – I have three types of serves – and then what he’s going to do,” Henry said. “So, either he’s going to stay at the net or he’s going to poach, get the ball in the middle.”
Especially for those inexperienced against the formation, it can lead to indecision and can mess with the opponent’s focus.
“If I’m playing against it, I don’t know where the net guy is going to go,” Henry said. “So, I have to try to hit my shot where I usually hit it, but I don’t know where the net guy and the baseline guy are going to go, so it’s constant thinking about where they’re going to go.”
Adding the formation to their arsenal gives the tandem options. The improved conditioning, fueled by Bell playing lacrosse and Henry running the hurdles, gives them another advantage in the way of not just stamina, but pep.
“The way we play kind of gets into the heads of our opponents because we were so energetic during the match,” Bell said.
When Bour has the team run what he calls an “athletic loop,” a lap around the entire athletic complex that is slightly under a mile, No. 1 singles player Luke Sorgic and the No. 1 doubles players typically lead the pack.
Another noticeable improvement: Bell’s serving.
“I’m a lot more consistent and I hit them harder and with more spin,” Bell said.
The win improved Chesterton’s record to 9-2, the lone losses coming in the first two matches of the season, vs. Westfield and South Bend St. Joseph, a pair of schools currently ranked in the top eight in the state poll. Chesterton checks in at No. 22.
Bell and Henry started the season losing 4 of 5 and have won 8 of 10 since then.
When Chesterton players win a match, they yell, “Let’s go Trojans!” to let teammates know they scored a point toward the team score, a nice energy boost for those still playing. As is usually the case, Sorgic was the first to holler it after defeating his opponent, 6-0, 6-1 to improve his record to 13-2. Then came Bell and Henry. No. 2 doubles Brady McWhirter and Ryland Tolton were next to the finish line with clinching point, winning their match, 6-2, 6-4, after falling behind 1-4 in the second set.
No. 2 singles player Peytan Belegal scored the fourth point, winning his long match 6-0, 6-3.
It was the second big DAC win in five days for the Trojans, who can clinch their sixth consecutive conference title with an undefeated season by defeating Portage on Thursday and Merrillville next Tuesday.
Chesterton 3, Lake Central 2, Sep. 11: Sorgic won his match 6-1, 6-0, Belegal won his 6-0, 6-0, and Bell and Henry won 6-3, 6-2 for the clinching point of the big road victory.