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By Carl Kotala
Jovian Sherrell was 11 years old and already quite an accomplished tennis player when he told his father, Harry, about one of his future goals:
He wanted to play No. 1 singles for Cherry Creek High School.
Well, not only has Jovian now accomplished that goal, he’s made a little bit of Bruins history along the way.
The 14-year-old Sherrell is just the fourth freshman, and the first in 30 years, to hold the No. 1 ranking for a boys tennis program that has won 47 of the past 55 Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) state championships.
“I’m really happy that I was able to accomplish it,” Sherell said. “It feels really good to know that at least … I may not be the best in Colorado right now, but I’m definitely doing something correctly if I’m one of the best freshmen that has played at Cherry Creek.”
Sherrell joins an exclusive list of players to sit atop the Bruins’ ladder their freshman season that includes Kevin Johnson (1983), Jeff Salzenstein (1988) and Chad Harris (1996).
Harris was No. 1 all four years, lost in the state final as a freshman, then won three straight individual championships. Salzenstein played No. 1 three out of his four years, winning a state title at No. 2 singles as a sophomore and No. 1 singles as a senior. Johnson was the Bruins’ top player all four seasons.
Not only is Sherrell the top Bruin this season, he is the top 14-under player in Colorado and No. 2 in the USTA Intermountain Section, which encompasses Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
He’s also No. 72 in the country over the past six months despite playing in fewer tournaments to focus on high-level training under the watchful eye of his father, Harry, who has been Jovian’s main coach since he first started playing tennis at the age of five.
“I’ve known (Jovian) for some time and even at the age of seven or eight, he showed a lot of aptitude and joy with the game. He was having fun,” Cherry Creek boys tennis coach Art Quinn said.
“He’s trained a lot. He’s gotten a lot of support from his family and the coaching community. He trains and plays at a level that is very admirable.”
Sherrell, who has a dream of turning professional one day, trains twice a day from 2 ½-4 hours – six, if he goes to the gym – has been honing his game against top competition from a very young age. When he was 10 years old, he would play in tournaments against opponents who were much bigger, and much older.
One look at his small frame (Sherrell is currently 5-foot-2 and weighs 105 pounds) and some of those opponents would laugh.
They didn’t know what was going to be coming at them.
“If you know who I am, you know it’s not going to be that simple,” Sherrell said.
Once he got used to the big serves and the hard shots, it was on.
Sherrell has played in two Level 2 national-level tournaments, winning a doubles championship and finishing third in singles in one of them.
He finished his 12-and-under USTA ranking at No. 1 in Colorado and Intermountain and was ranked No. 24 in the country.
“I’d say the strength of my game is probably playing from the baseline, making a lot of balls,” Sherrell said. “When I was a little kid, I was always playing divisions up – like 16s and 18s when I was 10 or 12.
“I learned to play defense really well. That’s something I’m still really good at right now.”
And like any good player, Sherrell is working to improve on certain aspects of his game right now.
“I’m trying to improve my serve, getting to the net and hitting even more solid groundstrokes,” he said. “I’m mainly focusing on playing offense and trying to affect people and getting into the right position to hit the good shots.”
Should Sherrell get better in all those areas, and there’s no reason to think he won’t, it will make him an even more dangerous opponent in the future, especially when you factor in his inevitable growth spurt.
“He doesn’t miss very much,” Quinn said. “He’s got aggressive baseline tendencies, so he’s got power. He’s not the biggest athlete right now, but he works hard on his strength, conditioning and his fitness. He’s got a very high intelligence about the court.”
Sherrell is pretty smart off of it, too. He speaks two languages (English and Russian) and helps himself prepare for his upcoming matches by journaling after he plays, noting what worked, what didn’t … and what he should never try to do again.
While he plans to up the number of tournaments he plays for the 16s and 18s division points and national standings, Sherrell’s main focus right now is to help bring state championship No. 48 to the Bruins’ trophy case this fall.
“A good season for me would probably be winning team states, getting to the quarterfinals or semifinals of individual states, and winning 90 percent of my matches during the season,” he said.