Tennis
Favorite athlete: Usain Bolt
Favorite team: The San Francisco 49ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing first singles my senior year – I gained so much experience, knowledge and respect for tennis.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: One time, during a friendly match that was just for fun, a fox came onto the courts. When my opponent hit the ball into the net, the fox ran over to the ball, picked it up with its mouth, and ran away!
Music on iPod: “Detach” by Hans Zimmer, “King Kunta” by Kendrick Lamar, “Weston Road Flows” by Drake, “Into You” by Ariana Grande
Future plans: To pursue an English Writing major at the University of Pittsburgh and to attend the university’s Honors College.
Words to live by: “Joy is ours, my darling!”
One goal before turning 30: To have a collection of poetry printed by a known publisher
One thing people don’t know about me: I play a lot of Tetris – and I mean a lot! I always play at least a quick round before every match because it helps my brain focus.
By GORDON GLANTZ
While June 15 is circled on the calendar of John Starr, it remains unclear what color sharpie he has used to designate the date of William Tennent’s Class of 2016 graduation.
“It is getting closer and closer,” said the Univest Featured Male Athlete of the Week. “And it is emotional for me.
“I want to move on, but I don’t want to leave.”
He wants to move on but doesn’t want to leave?
If that sounds like a thought that comes from one with the soul of a poet, it is not by happenstance.
Starr, the school’s top singles player on the tennis team as a senior, was asked to deliver the senior poem at the annual Night of Reflections.
It is an honor that caps a significant impact in his four years at Tennent.
For John Senske’s tennis team, he converted from a longtime baseball player to a freshman barely contributing to the varsity squad to third doubles as a sophomore to third singles as a junior to first singles and an Honorable Mention all-league nod as a senior.
“John is a four-year varsity player for our tennis team and a two-year captain,” said Senske. “Leading by example, John includes all his teammates in drills and games. He is generous with his time and he shares his knowledge of tennis with everyone.
“Although he is still a senior, John still carries the water cooler to practice or onto the bus for away matches, and he picks up as many balls as anyone on the team when we are practicing. John displays good sportsmanship every time he steps onto the court. When playing an opponent from another school, John can always be seen applauding the good plays of his counterpart across the net.
“I don’t know what else I can say. I know we will miss John’s generosity, leadership and experience next fall. Our tennis program is lucky that John decided to come out and join us four years ago.”
A Victory for Poetry
But tennis only tells a part of the John Starr story.
“I hate boredom,” proclaimed Starr, whose passions include singing and playing several instruments.
Academically, he has taken eight AP classes in the last three years and 11 honors classes in the last four (AP classes are not permitted in ninth grade). His scored a 2240 in the SAT and his weighted GPA of 4.14 has earned him a class rank of fourth.
The president of the National Honors Society and vice president of student government, Starr got to visit Stanford last summer on an internship for a pharmaceutical company.
Half-jokingly, but with a tinge of seriousness he says that “the only regret I have is that I didn’t get to create a badminton club.”
It was always presumed he would major in molecular biology and become an optometrist. But that all changed one day in the library last year, when he was drawn to the poetry section and a collection of poems by William Carlos Williams – who, ironically, was a poet/doctor – that was “so magical” Starr would not be the same.
By March, the incoming freshman at the University of Pittsburgh decided he would not major in any of the sciences but in English.
“I have to do what makes me happy,” he said, adding that tennis will remain part of his college experience, perhaps playing in an intramural league. “I was reading and writing a lot. I knew it was not going to be science.”
Starr now writes daily, although “some days are more prolific than others,” and keeps the clichéd black notebook by his side at all times, reluctant to share rough drafts with friends and family.
Although new to the craft, Starr won the school’s Kyle Quinn Spirit Award (named for a poetry-loving Tennent student who passed away) last May, a month after discovering Williams in the library.
“That really motivated me,” said Starr, honored again by the school this year. “I’ve been writing since then. As you write more and more, you keep getting better and better.”
And as he got better, he discovered his own voice.
“It’s very weird,” he said. “It’s not a certain style. It’s a strange style.”
Starr challenges himself with word play.
An example, from the poem “Fair Weather”:
Fair weather wears feathers,
Whether it fares better
Fighting fears or bare fetters.
And from the poem “About A Bad Day”:
Four tunes show fortune,
Unfortunately for I who have had two lately.
Mistruth is truth
First, but time misses distrust swiftly:
A musky dusk mucks up
Those puckered up to bait me.
“It’s more technical, like a puzzle of how I can convey what I want to say,” Starr said. “It makes the poem feel more personal.
Weary of being wait-listed at Dartmouth and Cornell, Starr whittled his list to three Pennsylvania schools – Temple, where his father works, as well as Penn State and Pitt.
Her chose Pitt – saying “I felt like I belonged” in what he described as a “large small town” -- and will major in English with a plan – a plan that could change – to follow through to getting a doctorate and teaching poetry on the college level.
“They have no specialization in poetry, so I’m going to major in English writing,” he said. “While I’m really bad at teaching, something about English just really clicks, so I’m planning on pursuing a teaching path. That upset my grandmother, who wanted me to be a doctor, but everything changes.”
And because everything changes, Starr could foresee – although he is not at that point yet – where it all could morph into a singer-songwriter alter ego during or after college.
“I wanted to be a film composer at one time,” said Starr, who plays piano and guitar and sings in the school Madrigal choir. “I was raised on classic rock. I love Jazz. I listen to a lot of rap and hip-hop. It’s more lyrical and, really, like poetry in a sense. And I have written some songs. Something about it hasn’t clicked yet.”
Stepping Up His Game
Nothing about tennis had clicked for Starr. It was just a game he and his dad, John Harold (not Sr.), would play for recreational fun.
“I played nine years of baseball,” he said. “I realized I didn’t really like baseball all that much. In my freshman year, I was 5-4. I had no shot to compete with high school pitching, where pitchers are like 6-1 and 6-2. I figured I would be on the bench, or maybe not even make the team.
“I was not very good at tennis. All I had ever done was knock it around with my dad.”
But he went to an open house, checked it out and the rest was history.
Although a bit player as a freshman, the Tennent team placed fourth in the district.
“I was really proud to be part of that team,” he recalled. “We all had such a great sense of comradery. It felt very real to me. And I loved playing.”
Starr went from being a casual player with his dad to a full-time, year-round devotee at the craft.
“I spent 4-5 days a week over the summer and indoor sessions in the winter,” said Starr, who credited Stenske and assistant Molly Leahy for their encouragement, on and off the court. “I ran, did pull-ups, push-ups – the whole workout.”
Meanwhile, as the team from his first year lost six seniors and six more were gone the following year, he continued to rise to the occasion and move up the depth chart.
Starr especially singled out assistant coach Jerry Nagahashi for working with him, one-on-one.
“He has really been the one constantly devoting his time,” said Starr. “He really helped me and pushed me and was a true inspiration for me.”
Come his senior year, Starr was in some rarified air, competing against some of the best high school players in the state in the role of No. 1 singles player.
“I was proud of that,” he said of the steady ascension. “You’re here, playing the best kid from every school.”
Starr can’t recall his exact record – somewhere “around six wins” – but he knows he left it all out on the court.
A big part of the feeling of achievement was the opportunity to go up against Council Rock North’s Alex Whalen in the season-opener.
“That was my first match, and I got trounced,” said Starr, who turned the negative into a positive and engaged Whalen in conversation after the match, which he made a practice of doing.
“They are just people, just like me,” he said of his opponents. “I learned so much from just talking to them. I learned about myself as a player and how to play.
“If he was my last match of the year, instead of my first, I honestly don’t think my season would have fared as well. It pushed me to exceed my limits, if I could.”
And now all the son of John and Wilma -- and older brother of Sarah, who plays field hockey at Tennent -- needs to do is to push himself past the cauldron of emotions he will feel on June 15.
