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Columbia’s Camrin Wilcoxon is the 3-time LCR Boys Tennis of the Year. (AMBER MASTERS/Special to the Reporter)
Camrin Wilcoxon hadn’t lost a match all season.
A return to the state tournament in his final season at Columbia was within his grasp as he took the court for his District 4-3A final against Vanguard’s Drae Centonze. But Wilcoxon found himself in the biggest battle of the season, one that went straight down to the wire.
The two No. 1s battled it out, point after point all the way to a tiebreaker set. The two continued to go back and forth throughout the entire frame, pulling to a 7-all tie before Centonze sliced a ball to the net, just dropping it over onto Wilcoxon’s side to take an 8-7 lead.
Centonze never relinquished it, holding serve for the final two points for a 10-7 win to take the No. 1 singles district crown. It was a heartbreaking end to Wilcoxon’s impressive career at Columbia, which began with the program’s first trip to the state tournament for a singles player.
Wilcoxon never got the chance to return the following three seasons, losing his sophomore year to covid-19 before falling in the district championship in each of his last two years.
“It was heartbreaking,” Wilcoxon said. “I’ve never cried over a match but that one brought a few tears to my eyes for sure…I think he deserved the win. He played great, we both did, it was just a few points at the end that kind of decided who the match went to. That match definitely hit home for sure because I definitely wanted to pursue that state championship.”
It ended another stellar season for Wilcoxon, who finishes his career as the three-time LCR Boys Tennis Player of the Year. He finished his senior year with an 11-1 singles record and a 7-3 doubles record, setting the stage for his college career at Arizona Christian University, which he switched to after originally signing with William Jessup.
“I grew a lot from last year,” Wilcoxon said. “It was a great season. I had a lot of fun with the guys.”
Centonze quickly took the first set of the district final match 6-2, and Wilcoxon quickly went to the restroom to throw water in his face to try and wake himself up. That didn’t work either as Centonze took the first game of the second set 40-0.
Wilcoxon had zero momentum, and he looked overmatched.
“He started a little shaky and that guy was as cool as a cucumber,” Columbia coach Liza Viplav said. “He had no reactions, no emotions, nothing at all. If he won or lost a point, he didn’t care about it. He was playing a very cool game.”
Viplav simply told Wilcoxon to go all-out. It was time to lay it all on the line, or Wilcoxon’s final high school match was going to be a quick one.
“At that second I was like, ‘come on man, this is the match. This isn’t a regular-season match. This isn’t a tournament. This is the match you’ve been waiting for,’” Wilcoxon said. “So I told myself that and from that point on I just grinded. I made every single ball, had big serves and just played a huge game. That really took the momentum away from him in the second set, so I was able to pull that one off.”
Wilcoxon looked like a different player from that point on, winning the second set 6-3 to force the thrilling tiebreaker. The two players were neck and neck throughout, with Wilcoxon taking a 4-3 lead early that he thought was about to be 5-3 when Centonze sent a ball that found the netting, only to drop over for a surprising point to knot the tiebreaker 4-all.
It happened again with the tiebreaker at 7-7, giving Centonze the lead for good. Those shots are the two Wilcoxon looks back on most when he replays the match in his head, which he says he’s done several times.
“A few weeks ago when state was happening I saw the level that was there and a lot of the players I’m familiar with,” Wilcoxon said. “It was heartbreaking because when you miss something by that close and you know if you had gotten past that one speed bump you could have won the whole race, it definitely hurts a lot.”
Viplav said Wilcoxon played the best tennis she’s seen out of him that day following his shaky start, even in a loss.
“He was fighting for every, every game,” Viplav said. “He just didn’t want to lose any game. He just wanted to win the district, but in the tiebreaker there were a couple of points where the ball touched the net and fell on the other side. It was just by luck that the other guy won. But overall, he played very well.”
Overall, Wilcoxon is still satisfied with his high school career. He made history at Columbia his freshman season and continued to build upon it with the best career ever for a singles player at the school.
He believes he’s more than ready to compete in college thanks to the coaches, teammates, opponents and family that have helped him reach this point.
“There were a lot of people who came out and supported me, which I definitely appreciated,” Wilcoxon said. “The support was there and everything was going my way, but sometimes everything doesn’t go your way. I definitely feel like I was prepared to win a state championship. There were a few points that didn’t go my way at the very last few points of that match, but I still feel like I’m 100% prepared to go play Division I tennis.”