Published: 07:10 AM, Wed Mar 10, 2010
Prep tennis preview: South View senior seeks title
By Jaclyn Shambaugh
Correspondent
Dominic Mercurio plays a lot of tennis in his head.
The South View senior loves to calculate percentages of shot success and likelihoods of winning approaches, tasks that come pretty easily to someone who's applied to MIT and Cal. Tech.
"I need to be able to figure out the percentages on a shot down the line," Mercurio said. "And now I need for it not to slow me down and just be able to react automatically."
Mercurio is a Renaissance man, spending his youth broadening his horizons in athletics, arts and academics.
The senior credits his parents, David and Sun, with exposing him to a variety of activities from an early age.
"It might sound like the stereotype," Dominic said. "But we're Korean, and the Korean way is to expose your kids to everything."
Among the activities the Mercurios let their only child try was tennis, starting him at Dark Branch Raquet and Swim Club when he was 7 years old. There, Dominic got his first taste of the court with the man who would later become his high school tennis coach, Mike Maddox.
While Mercurio let some of his interests slide - soccer and martial arts were the first to go, the latter after he earned his black belt in taekwondo - Dominic has persisted in two things: piano and tennis.
His talent on the keys earned him the 2008 Harlan Deunow Young Artists Award from the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra.
His skills on the court have landed him in the Tigers' No. 1 singles spot since he was a sophomore. And the last two seasons, Mercurio has finished in second place in the now-defunct Two Rivers Conference tournament behind Blake Collins of Cape Fear.
With Collins graduated, the way could be cleared for Mercurio to finally earn the conference singles title.
"We're strong, obviously, at No. 1," Maddox said. "And we're going to be solid up through the top six. We're not going to blow anybody out of the water, but we're going to be solid."
County teams lack depth
With several of Cumberland County's top 2009 players gone - due either to graduation or transfer - many of the area's teams lack depth through all six singles spots.
"A lot of it is a product of teen tennis going south here in Cumberland County," Maddox said. "With the closing of Dark Branch (in 2009) here and fewer youth tennis programs, a lot of kids don't have a place to learn. We're seeing the result of that now in high school tennis."
According to Maddox, Mercurio has the tools necessary to top other players in the Mid-South.
"He's very strong in his ground strokes," the coach said. "He's a got a strong first serve and a very good second serve, which is unusual at the high school level.
"But he's very good at analyzing his opponents and matches, and a lot of tennis is cerebral."
But the outcome of the season is unknown, and that's fine with Mercurio. He's taken a perspective that might seem surprising for someone so analytical.
"Life is supposed to be about adventure," he said. "We're supposed to go out and try things with risk."
For Mercurio, winning a conference title would be a bonus, something additional to the joy he already gets from the mental challenge tennis poses.
"I'd like to win and do well," Mercurio said. "But it's not the most important thing to me. I enjoy the sport and improving what I can do."