Eyes on the prize: Reigning 6A state singles champ's exit opens path for SM East's Fotopoulos

If growing up with a genetic encoding that under the microscope resembles the net down on Court 4 has taught Shawnee Mission East High School tennis player Mimi Fotopoulos anything, it is that you never, ever take anything for granted in this crazy game of the optic yellows.

But meanwhile the world – and in this case, the reporter – would like to take this moment to remind her that the writing, at least, appears to be on the wall.

No pressure, kid.

But what with the off-season departure of reigning Class 6A state singles champion Alecia Kauss, now formerly of Blue Valley North, to the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy at Hilton Head, South Carolina, folks will view it as only natural that Fotopoulos, the runner-up to Kauss at the regional and state tournaments as a freshman last season, appears primed, groomed and geared – pick your sliding analogy – to glide into the 2009 6A state singles champion’s spot.

It only makes sense, right?

Nice try, but Fotopoulos, for one, is not biting.

She did so by knocking out four opponents by a combined 32-0 game score in an eight-game pro set format.

The Lancers, meanwhile, also successfully won another team title, 40-22 over next-best SM Northwest.

Not a bad morning’s work for the Prairie Village resident’s first outing of the season for the Lancers, the defending 6A state champs.

“I just love high school tennis,” Fotopoulos said, “just to play with the whole team and everything. But it’s definitely tough playing the (No. 1) singles position. Everybody is still going to be good.”

Indeed. For starters, look no further than the two Sun Country netters who finished directly behind Fotopoulos in last year’s 6A state singles chase. Blue Valley North senior Haley Fournier placed third, and Blue Valley junior Ashley Tiefel garnered fourth.

“I still have to look out for Haley and Ashley,” said Fotopoulos, who also is quick to cite that foreign exchange players and other unknown quantities could come into play for the state’s top singles combatants by the time the season winds toward state.

For 6A’ers, state begins on Friday, Oct. 16, and wraps up Saturday, Oct. 17, at Maize South High School.

“There are still great players left,” Fotopoulos said, “so I’m definitely going to have to be ready to play at state, just like I was last year.

“And hopefully, it will have a different outcome. Maybe I’ll do better, I hope.”

* * * *

Not that last year’s results should have had her packing her racket bag and looking into Lancers soccer tryouts.

Hardly. Fotopoulos pretty much exploded onto the high school net scene a year ago, to the tune of a 23-3 match record, one strewn with highlights.

The right-hander captured the aforementioned SM District No. 1 singles crown in her first prep sesaon, as well as the St. Thomas Aquinas Tournament, then won the No. 1 singles title at the Sunflower League Tournament.

At regionals and state, she fell in the final to her friend Kauss, a then-sophomore putting the finishing touches on her own 27-2 championship season.

These two nationally ranked players in the Girls 16s found the dynamic of meeting in big matches at the high school level interesting, to say the least, as Kauss and Fotopoulos have competed together successfully on numerous occasions as doubles partners in national events in the high school off-season, as recently as this past summer.

For her part, Fotopoulos ranks 73rd in the nation on the latest United States Tennis Association’s National Standing List in the Girls 16s for singles and doubles combined and 69th in doubles.

“She was telling me about it, and she just really wanted to go down there and train and work on her game and get better before she would go off to college,” Fotopoulos said of the news of Kauss’ departure.

“I was so upset that she was leaving, because we’re really good friends and we’re doubles partners.

“We’re still going to be doubles partners,” Fotopoulos said, “even though she’s moving down there. But she’s going to come back and stay with me, so I’ll see her, and we’re still going to play doubles.”

* * * *

And now, a Reader’s Digest version of the Fotopoulos net family, of which young Mimi represents the last in a memorable line, much of it right here at SM East High.

Her paternal grandfather, John Fotopoulos, is a former high school state tennis champion at Hutchinson High School in 1949 who later played tennis and basketball for the University of Kansas.

He performed as a role player for the 1952 Jayhawks national championship men’s basketball squad.

Mimi’s father, Sam, was a tennis standout at SM East who graduated in 1979.

He captured a state singles crown as a junior for the Lancers after taking third as a sophomore. He was state runner-up as a senior.

Sam went on to play No. 3 singles at the University of Texas as a freshman and No. 1 singles at the University of Oklahoma in each of his final three collegiate seasons.

And yet, Dad never hears the end of it from his sister, Carrie (Fotopoulos) Barnthouse, who between 1972 and 1974 at SM East reeled off an undefeated career match record and three state singles titles.

Carrie appeared in the famed “Faces in the Crowd” section of Sports Illustrated in its Aug. 28, 1972, issue.

She played a year at Southern Methodist University before moving on to play three years of No. 1 singles for KU.

Carrie’s husband, Dr. Cris Barnthouse, a Kansas City Chiefs team physician, played basketball at KU following days as a successful prep tennis player in his native Winfield, Kan.

Mimi’s first cousins, Kristi and Nick Barnthouse, starred in high school tennis at Blue Valley North for most of a decade starting in the late 1990s.

Mimi’s mother, Angie, was a top junior player in her native Edmond, Okla.

And Mimi’s lone sibling, Chris, is a 2009 SM East graduate who now plays for the Oklahoma men’s varsity.

Chris Fotopoulos finished third, fourth and third, respectively, in singles in his first three high school seasons before pairing with P.J. Guignon to win the 6A state doubles title as a senior.

Tennis, anyone? How about tennis, everyone?

By the time Mimi, who turned 16 on April 30, arrived to play SM East tennis as a frosh a year ago …

“If you took all of the sports combined, I don’t think any family has been there longer or had more accolades as far as the history of the school,” current and longtime SM East tennis coach Sue Chipman said.

* * * *

For Mimi Fotopoulos, however, all of that storied family tennis history doesn’t amount to a hill of Wilson 8’s once she takes the court to do battle alone.

Knowing this, her friendly intensity and unbridled zest to lead these Lancers to a repeat state title is, above all else, one all her own.

Her ponytailed assault from beneath her trusty Nike visor on Sept. 12 merely marked the opening swooshes of her 2009 campaign, one that for her is oozing with focus.

In that vein, she is training with family members as well as reigning two-time Class 6A boys state singles champ Jack Sock of Blue Valley North, he of the top national Boys 16s ranking.

Along with her familiar two-fisted forehand and backhand, Fotopoulos’ serve continues to become a more powerful weapon, especially her first-service offerings.

“Now I’m starting to kind of change up what I do,” Fotopoulos said. “Now I sort of hit one-handed and hit more slices and dropshots.

“It’s kind of opened more of my mind to different things besides just hitting from the baseline. I am starting to come to net more. Trying to serve a little better.

I’m just trying to do a few little things here and there to help.

“So far,” she added, “you just get better the more you try it. I try a little more each match. Hopefully, by the time state comes around, I’ll be where I want to be.”

Where she wants to be is squarely in the mix. From there, she knows the hottest hand is going to grab glory.

“We’re all so close, especially Ashley and Haley and I, it kind of boils down to who plays best on that day,” Fotopoulos said. “Last year, I ended up losing to Alecia and the next weekend I ended up beating her.

“It’s all just who plays better on the day,” she said. “It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.”

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment