Where there's a Will there's a way

Senior's leadership and ability leads Blue

Flint, Mich. is known for producing two things: cars and basketball players. Will Farah almost became the second one.

The senior grew up as point guard of his high school - Flint Powers - basketball team. He also pitched for the baseball team and quarterbacked the football team.

He captained all three teams, just like now, when he one of the captains of the Wolverines.

Farah succeeded as quarterback of the football team, but his mother had other ideas.

DHANI JONES/Daily Will Farah and the Michigan tennis team are undefeated in Big Ten play this season. The Wolverines will battle Illinois for the Big Ten regular season championship on Saturday at the Varsity Tennis Center.

She did not like the idea of him risking serious injury on the football field, so one day she replaced his football pads with a tennis racket.

After football left his life, soon Farah decided that basketball was not his sport of choice. And then since baseball season ran into the tennis season, Farah decided that he would try to achieve greatness by swatting tennis balls instead of baseballs.

"My mom didn't want me to play football because she thought that I could get injured, and I decided to stop playing baseball," Farah said. "I had success in tennis, and I realized that I had potential in it.

"I gave up baseball because it ran into the tennis season."

Farah's pure athletic abilities were a big reason why he excelled as a freshman at Michigan. He finished strong and won the Big Ten tournament his first year.

"He has a lot of explosive athletic abilities," Michigan coach Brian Eisner said.

With that ability, Farah easily reached success playing tennis in high school. And thanks to a supportive mother, the foundation of a future two-time state champion began to take shape.

"When he was a freshman (in high school) he had the quality of a winner. He was willing to put in the time," high school coach Dan McKenzie said. "He saw it as a chance to improve. He would practice four to six and sometimes eight hours a day.

"His mom would map out tournaments for him to play in and she would take him all over the place. She would feed him balls.

He put in more time and effort then others, and he gave up all other sports."

Farah continued to improve earning him a top regional ranking. Before long he was ranked in the top 70 players nationally.

"As he played in more of those tournaments, he would get better and get invited to play in better tournaments," McKenzie said.

At the high school level, Farah was almost too dominant for his own good. McKenzie didn't bother to have Farah play in many matches because "it would have been a waste of time."

To keep Farah occupied during practice, he would have two players play the net, while Farah had to play them with just singles lines.

McKenzie and Eisner both agree that Farah has always been a leader by example.

"He's done an excellent job in terms of leadership," Eisner said. "He works very hard and looks for the other players to put in a hard days work. He expects it."

All of the hard work has translated into success for Farah. He presently has 96 wins and ranks sixth on Michigan's all-time wins list.

These trivial statistics do not mean much to Farah though. The team's success is what he is most concerned with.

"Right now it doesn't mean much to me," Farah said. "Reaching 100 wins would be nice, but nothing would be better than to win the Big Ten title."

Eisner refers to Farah as a player that keeps improving throughout the years.

"When he first came here he had an outstanding forehand, moved well, was very competitive and served well," Eisner said. "His backhand which had been his weakness, is improving."

Many players struggle as they continue to move up a lineup, but not Farah. The senior, who now nears the top of the Michigan lineup, heads into the Illinois match with 19 wins, one shy of the 20-win plateau - a feat that he has reached in all three previous years.

Farah calls Saturday's match against Illinois "as big a match that he's played in since he's been at Michigan." The only other one he can remember is a Big Ten battle with Illinois as a freshman, something Farah has stocked up as an experience to help him now.

"I saw how important it was to the seniors," Farah said. "I just went out there and played for them."

The next two years at Michigan would not be as kind to Farah. He calls the team struggling and underachieving his one regret.

This weekend offers Farah a chance to end his career at Michigan the way he started it - with a Big Ten title.

"There's nothing I could want more than to win the Big Ten title, and make it to Athens (site of the NCAA Championships)," Farah said

The Wolverines did not start the year with such lofty goals, though. Looked to be in a rebuilding season, it was Farah's job to sell the team on their potential for greatness.

The team started off the year with goals of finishing in the top half of the conference, and now that they are on the brink of a championship, it's Farah and fellow senior, co-captain Jake Raiton, that can thank for the team realizing their potential.

"Everyone looked to the seniors and it was our jobs to make them believe in our potential," Farah said. "Not everyone was that confident. I just tried to instill the belief that we are a very good team.

"At the beginning of the year, if you told most of the team that we would be 15-2 and 8-0 in the Big Ten, they wouldn't have believed you."

Now that the team is believing in its ability, they need to play their best match of the year in their biggest match of the year.

Mighty second-ranked Illinois comes to the Varsity Tennis Center on Saturday. The winner will be crowned Big Ten champions.

But the Fighting Illini have not lost a match in this part of the country in two years.

"It's very nice that it's at home. It's nice to get a good crowd out there," Farah said. "I've seen seniors step it up a notch and I hope I can do it also."

If his past is an indicator of what to expect, when a championship is on the line Farah's pure athletic ability can carry the Wolverines to step up and claim its crown.

04-20-99