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Athlete of the Week: Mark Barrow

Stratford Academy Tennis Player Mark Barrow is our Athlete of the Week. In four-plus years at Stratford, he has only lost twice.

Mark Barrow has been an ace for the Stratford tennis team ever since the 8th grade. The senior has been a part of 3 state championships so far, and has been nearly perfect on the courts.

“I don’t want to jinx him for the rest of the season, but he has only lost twice in his four-plus years of playing for us,” Stratford tennis coach Jaime Kaplan said.

The defending state champs finished the regular season undefeated and are now preparing for the state tournament.

Of course, his dominance is attributed to hard work and natural skill.

“He hits a heavy ball, but he is not what you would call a power hitter, he is just a gritty player and he hustles for every point." Kaplan said.

But if you ask Mark, the best strength to his game is the trait he had no control over.

“Not many people can return my serve on a school circuit because I am left-handed, because it's not something that many people are used to," senior Mark Barrow said. "So by the time they kind of figured it out, the match is winding down, so I got a little lucky right there.”

Losing only two matches in 5 years is not luck, and neither are all the points he’s earned in school with a 4.25 GPA or scoring a 1560 on the SATs, and the success in the classroom is impossible to ignore.

“All the players looked up to him, even in 8th grade, because of his level of play and also his academic standards, he has a lot o players looking up to him, so he has meant a lot to this program,“ Kaplan said.

Posting those numbers isn’t easy, but the challenge is enjoyable for Mark.

“I am taking Calculus BC, which is pretty fun. It's hard but it is fun. AP literature, which is also a blast, we are reading a lot of cool stuff. Biology is pretty cool. School is just another thing that you gotta try your best to succeed in, just like tennis or any other sport, and it's important to me to do the best I can,” Mark said.

And his record speaks for himself -- if he’s trying his best, chances are you won’t beat him on the court or in the classroom.

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