Senior Joel Heil is dominating the school record in singles career wins. The school record for singles won was held by former student Ryan Palmer with a career of 43-24. Heil has already surpassed Palmer and is continuing to do so. Heil has a career record so far of 51-25 but still has about half a season left in tennis to continue his wins.

Heil’s career started off with his older sister Jenna Heil who played high school tennis. At the age of 10, he started hitting with his sister. Following in his sister’s footsteps, he started training at Aspen, and has been training with his coach Dado Pavic since.

Entering his high school career in tennis, he played number three singles in his freshman year. In his sophomore year, he started play number one singles and gained a better record then, even heading to state as a sophomore but did not win the match. “My biggest accomplishment in high school were two matches,” Heil said. “I went into state as a sophomore unseated and I beat the number two and number three seat.” This was an accomplishment because he pushed through complete exhaustion to beat the number three seat after just before play the number two seat.

Leslie Shipp, boys tennis coach gave some input. “He is very smart and his brain is his weapon, which in tennis is most people’s weak points,” Shipp said.

Sophomore Jack Lucas has been Heil’s doubles partner in several games. Heil has been been Lucas’ mentor for doubles and shots. “He is not only extremely talented but he wills himself to win because he hates to lose,” Lucas said.

Although he has made it to these accomplishments, he still wants to finish the season up to his full potential. “Having the record is nice, but not what I’ll remember most,” Heil said. “I’m more focused on making state and if I do then I will look back at that more.”