Clarkston Ace Ready for Final Title Drive
September 26, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
CLARKSTON – While striving for his first MHSAA Finals title in one sport, Luke Baylis is looking to be a part of a repeat championship in another.
A senior at Clarkston High School, Baylis is head of the powder puff committee for his class, a job that entails collecting money, setting the rules and overseeing the team as it goes for a second consecutive win.
“As juniors they beat the seniors last year,” said Baylis, who served in the same role for the junior squad a year ago. “They’re a pretty solid team. Hopefully they’ll win again.”
As the powder puff team pursues school bragging rights, Baylis is in the midst of a statewide quest.
An all-state tennis player his first three years of high school, Baylis is looking to cap off his career with a Lower Peninsula Division 1 individual title at No. 1 singles after contending for the flight championship the last two years.
Baylis has lost in the No. 1 semifinals both of the last two years, falling to Troy’s Steven Forman two years ago, 6-0, 6-0; and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice’s Jarreau Campbell in three sets last year.
As a freshman, Baylis lost in the championship match at No. 2 singles to Andrew Zhang of Bloomfield Hills, the title winner at No. 1 singles in 2018.
With Campbell and Zhang graduated, this could be the time for Baylis.
“I definitely think there is a pretty big opportunity,” said Baylis, who carries a 4.1 grade-point average. “I’m definitely feeling a little more pressure, but the pressure is good at the same time. It’s not bad pressure.”
Baylis said his parents have told him that he has had a “racquet in his hands since he was a baby,” but he started playing competitively when he was 6 years old.
Baylis also dabbled in basketball, an obsession in the Clarkston community. But despite that, he didn’t have any dreams of suiting up for the decorated Wolves hoops program.
“I kind of knew I always liked tennis more,” Baylis said. “I knew I really wasn’t going to be playing varsity basketball, so I moved on and started playing tennis more competitively.”
Baylis certainly does play competitively during the summer, saying he’s usually gone every weekend competing at junior tournaments.
Clarkston head coach Chas Claus said Baylis’ biggest strength is his poise.
Claus pointed out there are no situations in matches where Baylis gets frustrated, starts talking to himself or shouts in anger.
“He’s very tough to fluster,” Claus said. “I’ve rarely seen him out of sorts in a match where he didn’t pull through and figure it out.”
Baylis, who currently has a 20-1 record, will play in college at Michigan State, choosing the Spartans over Notre Dame.
“It had the best feeling,” Baylis said of a visit to MSU. “When I stepped on campus, I knew it was right. Nothing felt quite as right as the team at Michigan State.”
Before making the move to East Lansing, he wants to apply the lessons he’s learned the last three years when he gets a final crack at a Finals title next month.
“I got tight in certain situations,” Baylis said. “I think it definitely made me stronger and a little more motivated going into this year after that semifinal loss.”
By the time the Finals wrap up Oct. 19 in Midland, Baylis hopes he’ll have two titles in the bag – a tennis championship to go with a second powder puff crown for his senior class.
PHOTOS: (Top) Clarkston’s Luke Baylis returns a volley during first-day play at the 2017 LP Division 1 Finals. (Middle) Baylis has made the No. 1 singles semifinals the last two seasons. (Top photo by HighSchoolSportsScene.com; middle courtesy of Luke Baylis.)
Anderson's Sad Ending Last Season Driving This Fall's Championship Pursuit
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 16, 2025
ROCHESTER – Normally, this would seem like an odd photo request – especially for a shot to become the wallpaper picture on one’s cell phone.
But Rochester High School senior Chad Anderson insisted he had a method to his madness after last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Tennis Finals.
Following a loss to Pierce Shaya of Bloomfield Hills in the championship match at No. 1 singles, Anderson had his mother take a picture of him crying.
To this day, it still serves as the wallpaper screen on his cell phone.
“It’s been my motivation since,” Anderson said.
Anderson certainly has performed like a motivated player heading into this weekend’s Division 1 Finals in Midland.
He enters as the top seed at No. 1 singles and hasn’t dropped a set this fall as he pursues what’s been an elusive individual title for himself, his family and his school.
As a sophomore, Anderson lost in the championship match at No. 2 singles. His older brother Clayton advanced to the No. 1 singles championship match in Division 1 three consecutive years from 2021-23, but lost each time to Sachiv Kumar of Northville.
Rochester also has never had a Finals singles champion in boys tennis, so Chad Anderson has that to inspire him as well.
“I’ve seen it happen to me and my brother enough,” Anderson said.
In preparing for what’s been a stellar senior season so far, Anderson went to work on a few components of his game, including making his serve-and-return more precise.
More than anything though, his big emphasis was not on improving technical aspects of the game, but working on his body.
“I put on 20 pounds to be able to hit the ball bigger,” he said. “Last year, I lost in the Finals to a guy who hit the ball stronger than me and bigger than me. I didn’t want that to happen again this year where there was just some guy overpowering me and dominating me.”
Anderson said he started playing tennis when he was 4 years old after his father, a former player himself, introduced the game to he and Clayton – who is now playing in college at Marquette.
Needless to say, there have been countless hitting sessions between the two siblings over the years.
“We can’t play without arguing,” Chad Anderson quipped. “We bicker a lot, but we push each other a lot.”
Rochester head coach Jerry Murphy, who is in his 53rd year as coach, said while Clayton had a devastating backhand and serve, Chad stands out because he has more of an all-around game.
“If he needs to come to the net, he can come to the net and feels comfortable doing that,” Murphy said. “He loves to move the ball around the court, and he wears guys out. He’s focused and does what he has to do. If he needs to out-rally a guy, he can do that. If he needs to outhit him, he can do that. The fact that nobody has taken a set off of him this year is a testament to that, and we’ve played some pretty good players.”
In addition to technical ability, Murphy said Anderson has displayed a fire on the court this year that’s become an inferno.
“He wants to do what his older brother couldn’t do,” Murphy said. “I can see that in his eyes when he plays. He’s motivated. Whether he can seal the deal, we’ll see Friday and Saturday.”
Anderson said he doesn’t feel pressure being the top seed at his flight and actually welcomes the challenge, given it’s a spot he prepared to be in all offseason and throughout this fall.
In addition to himself and his family, providing a Finals champion for the first time to a coach who has been at the helm for more than five decades would be beyond meaningful.
“It would mean so much to win it,” he said. “I’ve wanted it so bad. It would be a good thing for the program.”
If Anderson does win this weekend, he’ll need his Mom to take a new phone wallpaper photo of him celebrating instead of crying.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.