After a disappointing tennis tournament in Mobile, Dillan LaFrance decided to focus on one sport.<\/p>\n
Two years later, the former football player was the only senior on a Brother Martin tennis team that won the Division I team state championship earlier this month in Monroe. LaFrance and doubles partner Semaj Rouege finished as state runners-up, helping lead the Crusaders to their third team title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt meant everything,\u201d LaFrance said. \u201cI got a little teary-eyed. Being my last match at Brother Martin, it hit me in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brother Martin won the team championship on the strength of three doubles teams that advanced to the state semifinals along with two singles players who reached the quarters.<\/p>\n
LaFrance, at 5-foot-11 and 183 pounds, was easy to notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the biggest and strongest guy on the team, built like a football player for sure,\u201d Brother Martin coach Lee MacAlester said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome guys just have that easy power with fairly minimal effort,\u201d the coach added. \u201cHe\u2019s always had that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former running back played junior varsity football as a freshman and sophomore, earning time as a third-string ballcarrier leading into his sophomore-year tennis season.<\/p>\n
LaFrance struggled early, unhappy with his play at a March tournament in Mobile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent way more time on football than I would on tennis,\u201d LaFrance said. \u201cWe always had practice for long hours, putting tennis on the back burner. It started showing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the tournament, LaFrance decided to give up football.<\/p>\n
\u201c’Coach, I really want to focus on tennis,’\u201d MacAlester recalled LaFrance telling him. \u201cLet\u2019s go all in \u2014 and he did. He\u2019s been steadily improving.\u201d<\/p>\n
At state this season, LaFrance advanced beyond the quarterfinals for the first time and forced a third-set tiebreaker in the state final against St. Paul\u2019s duo Jeffrey Roth and William Cather.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great seeing my game improve,\u201d LaFrance said. \u201cI love the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaFrance said his background in other sports drew him to doubles tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was younger, I played baseball, football and basketball,\u201d LaFrance said. \u201cI love the team aspect of something. Being on the court with someone else \u2014 I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaFrance will continue playing tennis on the LSU club team, he said, where he will join Brother Martin graduate Sal Trujillo.<\/p>\n
Brother Martin has won the team title twice in the past three seasons. The team\u2019s first title came in 1987.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we won state two years ago, every single person got us one point,\u201d MacAlester said. \u201cHere, every single person got us two points.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaFrance and Rouege earned the most points \u2014 validation for LaFrance\u2019s decision to devote himself fully to tennis.<\/p>\n
Other standouts<\/p>\n
Other finalists from the last day of the state tennis tournament were girls champions Ciara Sergi of Mandeville (Division I) and My-Linh Holmes of Willow (D-II). Mount Carmel\u2019s Caroline Melius (D-I) and Haynes\u2019 Mallory Kymes (D-II) reached the finals. Ben Franklin\u2019s Prateek Adhikari and Peter Simeonov reached the D-II doubles finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a disappointing tennis tournament in Mobile, Dillan LaFrance decided to focus on one sport. Two years later,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":791128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[12351,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-791127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-hardwall","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116561790066605569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}