Warsaw’s tennis team shows off its hardware after winning a sixth straight title with a 5-0 sweep of Columbia City Saturday. (Photos by James Costello)

WARSAW — Rick Orban has won a whole lot of championships at Warsaw.

The Tigers tennis coach has presided over 17 straight sectional championships with the girls, and, over his 15-year span as boss of the Warsaw boys, his teams have only come up short of a sectional title twice. That’s 30 sectional titles over 32 combined seasons, and, make no mistake, each one has been memorable in its own right. But after a scary bout with pneumonia landed Orban in intensive care in the weeks leading up to this year’s boys tournament, this one was particularly special.

The Tigers jumped out to a fast start, giving their coach a win to remember with a 5-0 sweep of Columbia City at the Warsaw Boys Tennis Sectional championship Saturday morning.

“As Coach Jan and I talked, you never know when it’s going to be that last sectional,” said Orban after Saturday’s win, the Tigers’ sixth straight. “Yeah, this was special, and it happened with a special team. By far and away we’re not the best team that I’ve ever had, but it’s a close-knit team. They like each other. The kids are really good kids. The parents have been really tight all year so when you look at everything over 32 seasons, every season is unique but yet this one is kind of special.”

Warsaw coach Rick Orban talks to his Tigers in the huddle Saturday.

Another memorable detail about this season’s title? It was won on a Saturday instead of the usual Friday or Thursday.

When it comes to high school sports, a shakeup in routine can sometimes translate into shaky play, but the Tigers were well-prepared for Columbia City. The move from Friday to Saturday was the result of concerns voiced by other coaches at the five-team tilt, explained Orban. When the Eagles coaching staff announced that they’d be back at Warsaw more than an hour ahead of Saturday’s scheduled start time following their team’s 5-0 semifinal win over Whitko Thursday night, Orban knew the challengers would be ready. So he made doubly sure his team would, too.

“When we talked about it, we talked about the fact that it gave us an extra day of practice yesterday. We went over some things. We talked about getting up early, getting together, eating breakfast, which they did as a team,” recalled Orban. “They got back here, it was 10 til 8, and we had time to talk about the match. We had time to focus on it. We had time to do a slow warmup and then I made them play three games — one singles against two singles, three singles against our one singles JV kid, one doubles against two doubles — just to get them ready for the match, to get their mind set that this was truly a match, and we needed to start off fast. And it seemed to work really well.”

“It started with breakfast,” said Tigers number one Colton Lind. “The entire starting lineup went out to get breakfast. We all had a big breakfast, coffee — got a little caffeine — and then we came in here and when we got to the courts we warmed up smartly.”

Nolan Knight returns a shot during two doubles play Saturday.

They played smartly, too.

The goal was to take the fight out of Columbia City early, and Warsaw seemed to accomplish that, jumping out to big leads on all courts. The varsity’s three seniors played a big role in the quick start as Lind won his match with Garrett Anspach, 6-0, 6-0, Tigers number two Kyler Bartol earned a similar 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Braden Baker, and Bailey Buhrt combined with junior Spencer Britton to put away Jordan Lee and Kendall Smith, 6-0, 6-1, at one doubles.

The home team had clinched its sixth straight sectional championship in only 48 minutes.

“Ending our senior year winning sectional for the sixth year in a row, it’s definitely great,” Buhrt said.

“Plus, this is my first personal sectional win, so it makes it even better too,” added Bartol.

“This morning we talked about a fast start — try to take that hope away from them,” Orban said. “So when you looked… and we’re up basically 4-0 on every court, what I looked for was the Columbia City kids, did they still have that energy they had in that first and second game? And they didn’t. When you can get on top that quick and play that solid of tennis, the advantage swings to you immediately.”

While he didn’t play in any of the matches Saturday, Warsaw’s fourth senior Nick Marsh — whom Orban called probably the best non-varsity player he’s ever coached — played a role in the team’s title nonetheless, helping warm up number three Caleb Williams for his match with Eli Jones, which Williams ultimately won, 6-1, 6-1.

Warsaw’s four seniors accept the championship trophy from WHS Athletic Director Dave Anson. From left, the seniors are Nick Marsh, Kyler Bartol, Bailey Buhrt and Colton Lind.

“It’s hard to start quick, and if you do it’s a big advantage for you,” explained Marsh.

“You’re more aggressive. You can go for your shots more often than not. You feel looser and more ready to play.”

Warsaw completed Saturday’s sweep when Nolan Knight and Reuben Williams finished off a 6-0, 6-4 win over Columbia City’s Jackson Longenbaugh and David Kyler. Those four games were the only four games the Tigers two doubs tandem had surrendered in three matches at sectional, and the home team cruised through the tournament 15-0.

Next up for the Tigers is the Culver Academies Regional, where they’ll play Wabash — which advanced with 4-1 win over the host Tigers at the Peru Sectional Saturday — Tuesday, when Plymouth and host CMA play in the other semifinal at the Gable Tennis Complex. The regional championship is slated for Wednesday.

“The advantage of coaching this long is you know a lot of the other coaches so I can make some phone calls, probably get some information on whoever we’re playing. Monday, we’ll get ready for that, and then Tuesday we get ready to win,” said Orban.