Dispatch All-Metro tennis coach Preston Eberlyn helps Columbus Academy to stellar season
Preston Eberlyn was glad to see a familiar face during his early days in his new job at Columbus Academy.
Around the time Eberlyn was named tennis coach last summer, he instructed young players at a weekly camp held on Sundays throughout July. And although Eberlyn had served as Academy’s middle school boys coach last spring, he hadn’t crossed paths with any varsity girls players.
That changed at the camp, where senior Malia Chow served as a volunteer instructor. Her first impression of her new coach held true throughout a season that saw the Vikings not lose a team match for more than two months, capture a Division II state doubles championship and finish second in the Division II state team tournament.
“He knew when to step in … he could tell when we needed coaches and when we didn’t, in a sense,” Chow said. “All of the girls on our team are very independent; we’re at a level where we understand what we’re doing and where we can improve.
“He was very encouraging. He always looked out for us.”
Eberlyn, The Dispatch’s All-Metro Coach of the Year, heaped credit onto his four seniors — Yasemin Bilgin, Arya Chabria, Chow and Grace Philip — for setting a foundation that eased his transition.
Eberlyn, a 2011 graduate of Centennial who succeeded three-year coach Marc Wurtzman, also is taking over as Academy’s boys coach for the spring.
“I started at mid-summer, but already they had dealt with the athletic department and started having practices and worked out their offseason weight training,” Eberlyn said. “That foundation they set by the time I came on really helped get the ball rolling.”
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Academy opened with a 5-0 loss at Cincinnati Indian Hill, then reeled off a 19-match winning streak before falling to Indian Hill 3-0 in the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association state final Oct. 21 in Wooster.
The previous day, Bilgin and Chabria competed in an OHSAA doubles state final that took 3 hours, 15 minutes, defeating Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown’s Kate Mills and Summer Mu 7-6 (7-6), 4-6, 7-5.
“It was truly one of the best matches I’ve ever seen,” Eberlyn said. “The biggest thing was to trust themselves and keep swinging. There’s a tendency in those kinds of matches to tighten up and not swing, not go for your shots, but that was the thing we kept saying to them. Just keep swinging, go for your shots and set up the net person.”
While Chow agreed the doubles title was the highlight of the season, her lasting memory of Eberlyn comes from the last match of her prep career. Chow trailed 4-0 early in a district-qualifying match against Bloom-Carroll’s Emily Bratton, and although Chow lost 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, she credited Eberlyn for helping her be competitive.
“I wasn’t locked in or focused (to start),” Chow said. “I was tired. I didn’t have any confidence in myself and he helped me realized I could get back in the match if I just played my game.”
The Dispatch’s Athlete of the Year in girls tennis will be among the honors announced at the Central Ohio High School Sports Awards in June.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Academy's Eberlyn is 2023 Dispatch tennis Coach of the Year
