Former Connecticut tennis standout trying to make his mark in Maine

By Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News Staff

The tennis environments of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cambridge, Maine, couldn’t be more different for Caleb Fockens.

The Foxcroft Academy senior grew up in Greenwich, a wealthy community of 62,000 not far from New York City where tennis clubs are plentiful and competition at both the high school and junior levels is keen.

When Fockens and his family moved to Cambridge, a rural town of about 500 residents along Route 150 in Somerset County, during the summer of 2019, there wasn’t a tennis court to be found.

“It was definitely a bit of a change,” Fockens said. “I’ve been coming up here every summer since I was really, really young, but my mom wanted to come here to be with family because my grandparents are here.”

Fockens thrived in the southern Connecticut tennis culture, reaching the Round of 16 in the state’s Class LL state high school singles championship as a freshman. He then advanced to the quarterfinals as a sophomore while helping Greenwich High School (enrollment 2,800) finish as the team state runner-up both years.

After having his tennis opportunities scaled back for nearly two years, first by geography and later by the COVID-19 pandemic that forced cancellation of the 2020 high school season, Fockens hopes to make his mark on Maine’s interscholastic scene. That effort begins Saturday when regional qualifying rounds are held for the Maine Principals’ Association State Singles Tournament.

“When I first came up here the tennis fell off the radar for a little bit, and even right before we came up it was a little off,” said Fockens, the No. 1 seed for the Eastern Maine qualifier at Bangor High School. “For the last six months it’s been a lot more consistent, and hitting more often has definitely been beneficial for my game.”

Fockens was a little more than a week from joining Foxcroft’s tennis team in March 2020 when spring sports were shut down. Ponies tennis coach Ryan Dankert knew little about Fockens’ background until this spring.

“My only knowledge was that he had played tennis before and might be a decent player,” Dankert said. “I wanted to see what he had, so we started warming up together. That was the first time I’d seen him play.

“I could hit with him but I think he was probably holding back, and now that I’ve watched him more against other competition I’m like, ‘OK, that’s different than when he was hitting with me.’”

The right-hander’s style of play involves a disciplined approach featuring his serve and movement.

“If I’m playing a good match the serve definitely has to be there, otherwise everything else starts to fall apart,” he said. “Generally speaking my second serve is better than my first serve because it’s more consistent and I’ve been told that it’s annoying to return.”

His aim is to make sure he sets himself up to hit the forehand.

“If I get in the right position to crank a really good forehand anywhere on the court, that’s where I probably win most of my points,” Fockens said.

Fockens is 6-0 at first singles for the Ponies and has yet to drop a single game in any match.

“The footwork, the balance and everything that goes into perfecting the tennis swing, he had all of that and that doesn’t come together overnight or even in a few years,” Dankert said.

Fockens has led Foxcroft to a 4-2 start in Class B North team competition with his play and guidance.

“There were a lot of kids on the team who hadn’t necessarily played before or hadn’t played competitively before,” Fockens said, “but the team’s definitely making strides and it’s good to be able to give them a tip once in a while.”

Fockens started hitting tennis balls at age 7 after a brief flirtation with swimming, then advanced to junior tennis leagues at 10 and into the U.S. Tennis Association regional ranks at 12.

“I’ve tried to be very competitive academically as well so I didn’t play tournaments as often as other kids at that level,” he said. “I’d say I was probably pretty competitive with them, but there were kids who would drive 3 1/2 hours to Schenectady [New York] for tournaments and I’d be home studying for a math test.”

Twice a second-team, all-state honoree at Greenwich, Fockens remains academically competitive. He was named a Commended Student in the National Merit Scholarship Program last September and plans to major in economics with a minor in psychology at either Penn State, Bowdoin, New York University, Vanderbilt or Penn.

Fockens’ immediate goal is to represent Foxcroft, and Cambridge, well in state singles play.

“If I get through this weekend I’ll be very eager to see the kids from [southern Maine] play,” he said. “I made the Round of 16 freshman year and the quarterfinals sophomore year so I think one more round this year would be good progress.

“I don’t know nearly as much about the competition as I did going into the state tournaments in Connecticut. I don’t really know what to expect, but just trying to win every match I get sent out onto the court to play is always the goal.”