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By JOE BUIE
Staff Writer

Despite not winning a national championship since 2004, the Tyler Junior College men’s tennis program still carries an air of invincibility.

Clay Cypert knows the perception of those on the outside, because he used to be on the other side.

A sophomore from Ada, Okla., Cypert so badly wanted to play for John Peterson and the Apaches that he was willing to walk away from a scholarship at Cowley County (Kan.) Community College and walk on at TJC last fall.

The experience has been everything Cypert hoped it would be. He played well enough in the fall to earn a scholarship for the spring.

“I took a risk,” said Cypert, whose Cowley team lost a dual match to TJC, 9-0, last year. “I left a scholarship to come here and pay out of state tuition to get the opportunity to win a national championship and be able to improve.”

Cypert knew he would get better through coach Peterson’s regimented, intense workouts.

“He’s very structured,” Cypert said. “He’s an old football coach. He has every single day written down to the minute. It’s pretty much non-stop, there’s not a lot of time to rest.”

Ranked second behind three-time defending champion Laredo, the Apaches are supremely talented yet inexperienced in what they are about to experience — the national tournament in Plano this week.

Cypert is the only sophomore on the active roster, and he competed at nationals last year with Cowley. He played Flight 4 and lost in the quarterfinals to TJC’s Antoine Laberibe, another current sophomore who was limited this spring with various ailments.

Cypert plays Flight 6 singles and Flight 3 doubles for the Apaches. He said he played higher in the lineup last fall before TJC’s foreign players learned how to play on hard courts and in the heat.

His doubles partner is Frenchman Thibaud Aime, who plays Flight 2 in singles. Their doubles record is 13-3.

Cypert, who is 23-7 in singles, has fielded questions from teammates about what it’s like to play in the national tournament. He’s told them it’s all about going out and playing matches — it’s different than a team vs. team dual — and that “people are going to talk about you and watch your matches.”

“Being on this side of it is really cool,” Cypert said. “It’s completely different on the inside than it looks from the outside ... everybody is the same as everybody else.”

But the perception is that TJC never loses, never makes mistakes.

“That’s how we thought of Tyler,” Cypert said.

At 21, Cypert is the second-oldest on the team. He was home-schooled on a produce farm outside of Ada — one of seven kids. He first learned to play tennis hitting against the barn door.

“That’s really what I did,” he said. “I got in trouble for it, too.”

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TJC Lineup

Singles

Dominic McLuskey, Fr., England

Thibaud Aime, Fr., France

Roman Petrunin, Fr., Russia

Zack Goldsmith, Fr., England

J.J. Haley, Fr., San Antonio

Clay Cypert, So., Ada, Okla.

Doubles

McLuskey-Petrunin

Goldsmith-Haley

Cypert-Aime

Alternate:

Mwalimu Phiri, Fr., New York.