FORTVILLE — Hanging out with his older brother and friends seemed like a pretty cool thing to do.
Adam Koon was a baseball player, not a tennis player, when he arrived as a freshman at Mt. Vernon High School.
Older brother Owen Koon was a senior on the team. This was a chance for Adam to spend some time with his sibling, stay in shape for baseball and have a good time. He wasn’t taking the game too seriously, playing No. 1 JV doubles with Tyler Sumner, another senior and good friend of his older brother.
Fast forward to the recent completion of his senior year and Adam Koon is a two-time all-state tennis player, the single-season school-record holder in victories and a two-time Daily Reporter Hancock County Boys Tennis Athlete of the Year.
“Going into high school, if you would have time-machined me and told me I’d be looking at college tennis programs and all-state and being a state-qualifier for tennis, I’d told you tennis was stupid,” Adam said. “I didn’t even want to play. My mom and dad didn’t force me to play, but my brother was a senior on the team. I didn’t do anything in the fall so they encouraged me to play. They told me worst case scenario it would help my hand-eye coordination. It would give me something to do, keep me in shape.”
This fall, Koon qualified for the IHSAA Individual Boys Tennis Singles State Finals, the first in Mt. Vernon school history.
He reached the quarterfinal round before being eliminated.
He went 24-4 on the year, equaling the school record for wins in a season he had set the year before. He was 24-2 as a junior and finished his high school career with a remarkable 65-13 record, all at No. 1 singles.
“I had a lot of great coaches and a lot of great teammates. God and my family helped me a lot, too. … It takes an army to make one good tennis player. It’s not just me,” Koon said.
The freshman season was more like a social event for the future all-stater, who believes he would have had a nice career as a baseball player, but nothing like what he was able to accomplish on the tennis court.
Koon said he decided he wanted to prove something to himself, try to be great at something. To do that, tennis was the path he needed to take.
It took time and that army he mentioned.
From his freshman to sophomore season, Koon went from being the No. 4 Mt. Vernon JV player to the No. 1 varsity singles player and ranked between Nos. 30-40 in the state. He was consistently between Nos. 15-20 in the United States Tennis Association state rankings as a junior and he broke into the top 10 this year. He’s been between Nos. 8-10 for the Class of 2024 for much of the year.
“There wasn’t an exact slap-me-in-the-face moment, I just flipped the switch,” he said. “I went from zero days of tennis during the week to seven days a week. I’ve chilled out a bit now, but my sophomore and junior year it was all I wanted to do. It got a little bit unhealthy at some points, but I’ve learned to balance and enjoy the moments more.
“If you don’t sit back and be thankful for where you’re at you’ll never be satisfied and that’s what I’ve learned to do.”
Koon won No. 1 singles titles at the last two Hancock County tournaments. He didn’t lose to a county player after his sophomore season, and only a handful of sets to his nearest rivals. He helped lead his team to a sectional title in 2022 and the program’s first-ever Hoosier Heritage Conference championship this fall.
After finishing his season and career with a loss in the state quarterfinals, Mt. Vernon head coach Graham McMullen said, “He had an exciting career. Finishing this year 24-4 and (winning all those matches in his) career, all at No. 1 singles. And, he didn’t really pick up a racket until after his freshman year, what can you be disappointed about?”
Koon said he wants to play tennis in college and would like to make that decision after this winter. He’s continuing to work hard on his game, practicing daily and playing in USTA events.
“I shouldn’t have been a tennis player that had the career I had,” the Mt. Vernon senior said. “No one expected it. The only person with those expectations was myself. I carried those expectations to a high standard and put a lot of weight on them.”
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2023 Daily Reporter All-Hancock County Boys Tennis Team
Singles
No. 1: Adam Koon, Mt. Vernon
No. 2: Manny Downs, Mt. Vernon
No. 3: Brady Torzewski, New Palestine
Doubles
No. 1: C.J. Michalek/Luke Sitzman, Greenfield-Central
No. 2: Nathan Roberts/Alex Michalek, Greenfield-Central
Player of the Year: Adam Koon, Mt. Vernon
Coach of the Year: Michael Turpin, Greenfield-Central
Honorable mention
Singles – Moses Haynes, New Palestine; Arjomand Khokhar, New Palestine; Chris Long, Greenfield-Central; Mateo Molanphy, Greenfield-Central. Doubles – Bo Dixon/Myles Wennen, Eastern Hancock; Matthew Jones/Robbie Moore, Mt. Vernon; Max Orelup/Bryndan Wylie, Mt. Vernon
