2023 Daily Chronicle Boys Tennis Player of the Year: Sycamore’s Steven Chen

Boys tennis was a new team sport at Sycamore, but it wasn’t new to Steven Chen.

The junior had been playing since middle school and had even assisted with the Spartans girls program in the offseason.

Chen finished his first high school season 20-4, including picking up three wins at the IHSA State Tournament. For his accomplishments, Chen is the 2023 Daily Chronicle Boys Tennis Player of the Year.

Starting the season I didn’t really know what to expect for myself or the team, so I didn’t really have high expectations of being able to make it this far. To go almost undefeated was really, really nice.”

—  Steven Chen, Sycamore tennis

“It felt good to make it to state in my first year,” said Chen, who helped the Spartans go 12-1 as a team and finish second in the Interstate 8. “Starting the season I didn’t really know what to expect for myself or the team, so I didn’t really have high expectations of being able to make it this far. To go almost undefeated was really, really nice.”

With the program being new, Chen said he wasn’t sure how the year was going to play out. But as the year got going and the Spartans weren’t just winning but winning big, he said he got the feeling things were good for the young team.

“We won the first couple of matches without the other team barely scoring a single point off of us,” Chen said. “It was like, ‘Oh wow, we might be able to make something out of this.’ ”

Coach Rob Majerus said Chen was a big part of that success. Without a lot of experienced players on the team, Chen provided a lot of pointers to the players who were out for the first time.

“A lot of these kids had absolutely no tennis experience before,” Majerus said. “The more eyes on kids that could help. He provided tips on hitting with spin, getting more power on serves. When you have teammates helping teammates that’s ideally a better way to improve.”

Chen rolled through the regular season with a 17-2 record, both losses coming against Sterling’s Brecken Peterson.

Chen started the state tournament with two wins before dropping his third-round match. He rolled to a fourth-round consolation win before losing a tiebreaker to Chicago University’s Dash Smith 3-6, 6-4 (10-7).

“I think it was really exciting for all of us,” Majerus said. “Obviously, it was something new for him to be on that stage in that arena. He handled the pressure really well. He did what he does best.”

With another year left, Chen said his main goal at the state tournament was to see what the best in the state looked like. After five matches at that level he said he has a good sense of what to expect next year.

“I knew I had another chance next year, so I just wanted to get a feel for how good the opponents were,” Chen said. “It was really eye-opening. Everybody was really good. I was one of the top in my conference, but was probably low to middle in terms of skill at state.”

Majerus said he’s excited to see what Chen’s senior year will look like.

“Now he’s gotten a taste for IHSA competition and knows what outs there, I think he’ll go into next season without any blindspots,” Majerus said. “He knows the level of play it takes to do even better than he did last year.”

Chen said he really liked the experience of playing on a team versus playing solo.

“Being able to play on a team was great,” Chen said. “I was able to form connections, and you can’t really have that playing by yourself. It really makes you love some of the things you can’t really see when you’re playing by yourself.”