By Steve Bigham

BETHEL – Zack Miller’s storied tennis career at Newtown High School continued last week when he captured the South-West Conference title at first singles. In what came as something of a shock to those in local tennis circles, Miller, a senior, made relatively quick work of defending champ Evan Gillespie of Weston, taking him down 6-3, 6-4 at Bethel High.

It is believed to be the first title at first singles since Woody Freeman did it back in the early 1980s. Miller, primarily a baseline player, kept his opponent off balance with an array of clever strokes. It was Miller’s first win over Gillespie in four tries. The NHS senior lost to him a year ago in the SWC finals.

“When Evan started to come back from 5-2 in the second set, Zack didn’t panic and he held on. He kept his poise and he did not panic,” said coach Martin Margulies, who this spring began using the word Zack-like as an adjective to describe a player who’s cool as a cucumber.

Sophomore Jon Perachio was Zack-like last week when he won the league title at second singles, defeating Weston’s Alex Brandon 6-3, 6-3. It was the second such championship for the sophomore phenom, who remains unbeaten thus far in his high school career.

Newtown fell short in its bid to win the SWC team title as several players were defeated in semifinal action on May 30. It was in the semis that Sean O’Mahoney and Matt Beres were beaten at third and fourth singles, respectively.

The first doubles team of Matt McFadden and Peter Stephenson also lost in the semis, dropping a three-set thriller to Weston’s Andrew Mayer and John Champagne.

Weston went on to win the conference title, something it does on a near-annual basis.

For Newtown, however, the story was about Miller and Perachio, who will surely go down as one of the best one-two tennis punches the high school has ever seen. Miller, who also won a second singles title in his career, played for four different coaches during his four-year career.

He will head to Cornell in the fall where he said he might try out for the tennis team as a walk-on.

Miller won’t blow anyone away with his power, but he has superb strokes from the baseline and can mix it up enough to throw off his opponent’s rhythm much like a knuckleball pitcher. Perachio is slated to move into Newtown’s top singles slot next year and should pick up where Miller took off.

“They are two very impressive youngsters and I’m very glad we’re going to have one of them back for two more years. They both have superb technical skills and above all, superb composure. Both are very calm, very intelligent and very self-analytical players,” Margulies said.

Miller lost to Gillespie earlier in the season, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8). He finishes with a career singles record of 55-4.

With the SWC tournament coming to an end last Thursday, the Nighthawks headed to Hall High in West Hartford for the CIAC Class L tournament. Newtown fields four singles teams and two doubles team and each won at least one match. No one advanced beyond the quarterfinals.

The highlight of the event came when O’Mahoney, a sophomore, upset the tournament’s 9th-seeded player from Notre Dame of West Haven in an impressive second-round match. The match went three sets and O’Mahoney, a big hitter, came up with one big shot after another.

The doubles teams of Steve Danyew and Jason Garbarino and Mike Burns and Mark Stephenson also fared well, as did Matt McFadden, who moved up from his doubles slot to play singles.

Miller, the tournament’s three seed, fell in the quarterfinals to Adam Leibman of Staples, the number five seed, 6-0, 6-4.

“The match was played in bad weather conditions. It was very windy and Zack has spinning, looping shots that the wind tends to take. He could not hit to sides so he had hit to the center of the court,” Margulies said.

Perachio, the No. 10 seed, also lost in the quarters to Alex Jacobs of Staples, 6-0, 6-0.

Overall, the 2001 spring season was a very good one for the NHS tennis team.

“And with a couple of breaks, it could have been a perfect one. We almost beat Barlow and if we had played Weston at full strength it would have been a dog fight,” Margulies said. “I’m very pleased with the results and I’m very proud of the kids.”