Finn The Fighter Earns 5th Place Medal At State

Finn Pollard made history for Evanston’s tennis program in his final season.

But years from now his coaches and teammates won’t likely remember his won-loss record or his postseason success.

They’ll just remember him as Finn The Fighter.

Pollard, who measured 5-foot-2 inches when he entered the ETHS program as a freshman, never lost that underdog mentality as a fighter for every point and the rest of the state of Illinois found that out over the past three days at the Class 2A Illinois High School Association state tournament.

Pollard climaxed a brilliant season with a fifth place finish in singles at the tourney that concluded Saturday at Palatine High School. The Evanston senior defeated Von Steuben’s Garvin Murray 7-5, 6-4 in a hard-fought fifth place match and earned the highest finish for a Wildkit singles player since Dan More also finish fifth in 1973.

He’s the first representative from ETHS to claim an IHSA state medal since the doubles team of Jeff Gordon and Adam Wadsworth placed seventh in 1985.

Pollard won 6 of his 7 matches, losing only to eventual state champion Mitch Sheldon of Hersey, and combined with the doubles team of Evan Gerbie and Mike Wasilewicz to power ETHS to its first top 10 finish in the team standings since way back in 1978. That trio put the Kits back on the state map as they totaled 14 points, good for 7th place behind Hinsdale Central (36), Hersey (28), New Trier (25), Fremd (22), Lyons (19) and Glenbrook North (18).

Now that he’s grown physically --- he’s almost 5-11 after a growth spurt between last year and this year --- Pollard has gained strength and power in his overall game. But he’s never lost the fire and determination that drove him to success earlier in his career, either.

“I’ve also been under-sized, and I’ve never been one of those top-ranked guys,” Pollard said after accepting his 5th place State medal. “My Mom (Northwestern University women’s coach Claire Pollard) always taught me to work hard for everything, to hustle and fight for every point.

“I definitely had to dig down deep today and make something happen against Garvin. It feels good to win this last one. I did lose to Mitch (6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinals on Friday) and obviously he’s a good player. But I wasn’t going to lose to anyone else, not without fighting. I did what I could do --- and I won them all.”

“He really stuck with it in that last match,” praised ETHS head coach Marcus Plonus. “He’s that rare athlete with the fire and the heart to compete right to the end. He always gives it everything he has. I’m so proud of Finn and I couldn’t be happier for him. He played some very impressive tennis the last two days.

“We don’t get players like Finn too often in Evanston. He worked through some back pain today --- a couple of times he could barely serve --- but he bit the bullet and really fought through it. He’s a fighter, and he’s as deserving of a medal as anyone else here.”

Pollard’s growth spurt at a young age --- he still hasn’t reached his 17th birthday yet --- resulted in a 3-month layoff over the winter because of a stress fracture in his back. The pain re-surfaced in his triumph over Murray, the player he also beat to win the program’s first sectional championship in at least 40 years.

Pollard had to offer up a couple of underhand serves in the first set to relieve the stress on his back, but with the score tied at 5-5, he won a marathon game that went to deuce point five times before he pulled out the win as Murray whacked a forehand into the net.

Pollard also prevailed in the next game as the set ended after a 90-minute back and forth struggle between the pair. In the second set, the Evanston senior rallied from a 4-3 deficit in games --- and 0-30 in the next game --- to snatch the fifth place medal.

“I tweaked it a little and I felt a little bit of pain. But I was still able to play my game,” Pollard said. “I’d say I wasn’t at 100 percent, about 88 percent. But it was good enough to get it done.”

“During the match I kept telling him to move Garvin around more because he makes more mistakes when he’s on the run,” Plonus added. “Finn couldn’t just go out there and slice the ball, he had to believe in his ‘big boy’ (power) game. He stepped up and showed today just how much damage he could do.”

Pollard finished with a 27-4 won-loss record in his final season. He opened tournament play last Thursday by reeling off wins over Evan Henneberg of Normal Community (6-0, 6-0), Hadi Dossani of Barrington (6-1, 6-2) and Akshay Baird of Metea Valley --- a 9 through 16 tourney seed --- by a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 margin to advance to the quarterfinals.

Following the loss to Sheldon in the morning on Friday, rain hit the northwest suburbs and Pollard had to wait a full 7 hours between matches before he got back in the action and knocked out Glenbrook North freshman Atticus Kim 6-1, 6-3 in the consolation bracket at Fremd High School.

“I had to wait about that long in a tournament I was in last summer,” Pollard said. “What did I do then? I played pickleball with some guys for about 5 hours. But it was definitely weird today, to have to sit around and wait that long. It was annoying --- I really wanted to get out there and play.

“My mindset wasn’t really in a great place when we finally did play. But I worked hard and I eventually got into the right mindset. After I lost to Mitch, I just thought now it’s time to win that back draw.”

That’s just what he did. He eliminated another Chicago Public Schools player, Mark McRae of Lane Tech, by a 6-2, 6-2 margin in Saturday’s consolation semifinals to earn the rematch with Murray.

In doubles, Gerbie and Wasilewicz racked up a 4-2 tournament record before bowing out of the competition Friday. The two seniors were only paired together briefly before postseason play began, in an attempt to find a better path to State through an always tough sectional, especially for the talented Gerbie, who qualified in singles as a junior.

The pair defeated Dimtriy Hutnyk and David Motorga of Prospect in a close encounter in their state debut, 6-4, 7-6 (1), and then lost to Glenbrook South’s Alex Denizov and Bryce Abban 6-1, 6-4 in the second round. The two GBS players went on to place fifth overall.

In the back draw, Gerbie/Wasilewicz overpowered Dan Vanisko and Ryan Jabaay of Lincoln-Way Central (6-0, 6-0); topped Krish Khurana and James Oh of Springfield (6-2, 6-2); and upended Zach Bobofchak and Hugh Davis of Benet Academy 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 in a three-set tiebreaker.

Evanston’s run ended with another three-set match that saw Alex Dolipschi and Eli Stein of Oak Park-River Forest prevail 6-4, 3-6, 10-5.

“Those two guys didn’t have much experience playing together,” Plonus pointed out, “and when you get to this level, you’re up against guys who have trained and played together sometimes for years. That was a great showing for both of those guys and that last win put us in 7th place all by ourselves.

“Both Evan and Mike are great players. I actually wish Evan had a little more cockiness in him, because he has a big game and a better belief in himself would have really helped. But everything turned out great for them after we put them together the second half of the season.

“It’s wonderful that those three guys did something that hasn’t been done here for decades. We had a great group of guys this year who really put in the effort to make this a team, and I think what they did will inspire Evanston kids in the future.”