Men’s tennis: Freeport father and son team up for tennis at Sauk Valley Community College

STERLING – Corey and Preston Engel of Freeport have long enjoyed the friendly competition of tennis.

Around the age of 10, Preston picked up his first racket. At age 25, his father, Corey, started playing the sport.

For the last five years, they’ve been doubles partners, making regular Saturday trips up to Madison, Wis., in recent winter months to face good up-and-coming college tennis players.

This year, through an unusual set of circumstances, they’re playing together as the No. 1 doubles team at Sauk Valley Community College.

Coming out of Freeport High School, Preston, 19, initially planned to attend Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis. When the COVID-19 pandemic surged in 2020, however, those plans were scrapped and new arrangements were made.

“It didn’t really make much sense to pay all that money just to basically sit in a dorm room,” Preston said, recalling his college decision. “So I decided Sauk Valley was the next closest place that has a tennis team, and basically from there on out, I started out here.”

In 2021, as a first-year player at Sauk, Preston won the Region IV championship and was named player of the year in No. 1 singles.

“It worked out actually great in a lot of respects, not going away from home and undecided. [SVCC coach] Sara [Kipping] was completely inviting to bring Preston in,” Corey said. “It worked out awesome. It was a good first-year-plus academically.”

Over the offseason, the Skyhawks underwent substantial roster turnover, returning just three players from last year.

Shorthanded coming into the new year, 57-year-old Corey went to work recruiting for his son’s team.

When he learned Sauk was still one player short earlier this year, he did something unusual: he volunteered to fill the last spot himself.

“The weird part about it is we were missing some players, and so I helped recruit a couple of guys,” Corey said. “And they were missing one still, and I told Sara I would play, which is kind of an odd thing at my age. But we play a lot together, my son and I do.”

On Saturday, April 2, at Westwood Indoor Tennis Center in Sterling, Preston and Corey played in and won their first college doubles match together. In the Skyhawks’ first tennis meet of the season, the Engels defeated Tim Haspel and Josh Zaborski of Milwaukee Area Technical College in No. 1 singles, 6-0, 6-1.

“First match today, so it’s very cool. I just don’t want to let the team down, being my age and slow and old. But I have a lot of experience, so that hopefully will pay dividends for me,” Corey said. “It’s just being around the kids, it makes me youthful again – somewhat – which is good. Good teammates, good kids, too. It’s a good program down here.”

Preston says he’s been enjoying the partnership as well. With their past experience playing together, he expects them to fare well this season.

“To me, it’s kind of funny actually, just me and my dad on a college team. But I think we’ll both be able to do pretty well this year,” he said. “All of the experience that we have together playing, I think it’ll help us a lot, and I think we’ll actually be able to do pretty well. We know each other, we know how each other plays.”

In doubles, Preston is eager to see how far he and his dad can make it at regionals this year. Individually, he aims to defend his Region IV title from last season.

“I think our ultimate goal is, obviously, just to try to win every match and see how far we can go at the regional tournament,” Preston said. “But as for singles, I’d like to try to defend my title as winning the Region IV tournament last year. I’d like to try to defend that and win it again this year, so definitely gonna be working hard and hope to win it again.”

Corey added that he doesn’t really have any expectations for this season; he just hopes he and his son can continue to play well.

“Even if we lose a couple matches, we’re out here competing,” he said. “Play hard and good things happen.”