Red River grad Josh Lunak inducted into North Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame
· Yahoo Sports
Jun. 30—GRAND FORKS — Josh Lunak started with racquetball.
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He played regional tournaments when he was just 6 or 7 years old.
"There weren't a lot of junior players back then," Lunak said. "Junior racquetball was pretty limited. I'd see Tim and Tom (Wynne) running junior tennis programs with a lot of kids and participants. I knew that I wanted to try it."
Lunak never turned back.
He developed into one of North Dakota's all-time decorated prep players, then excelled collegiately at St. Cloud State. For nearly 20 years, he's been coaching at the prep and NCAA levels.
Thanks to his contributions as a player and a coach, Lunak has been inducted into the North Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony was held Saturday at Choice Health and Fitness.
"Really excited to be a part of it," Lunak said. "Really excited to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. When you start writing up a resume, you look at the past a lot more. What I realized the most was how fortunate I was to have so many current Hall of Famers as part of my tennis journey, both on the junior side and coaching side: Tim and Tom Wynne, Terry Paukert, Greg LaDouceur, Joe Rubin."
As a player, Lunak quickly rose to the top of his class in the state — and was one of the best for his age group in the United States Tennis Association's Northern Section (North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and part of Wisconsin).
He dominated opponents with his baseline game and tactical smarts. He rarely made errors and effectively pulled opponents off the court with his lefty forehand to take over points.
Big hitters found him difficult to attack because his passing shots were so effective.
"We used to have the Junior Aces tennis program," Lunak said. "It was a traveling program where Tim and Tom took us on 15-passenger vans to different tournaments in (the region). When I was 10, I'd travel and stay at hotels in Aberdeen, Bismarck, Fargo. . . there'd be 10-12 of us doing tournaments the whole summer."
Lunak won a singles title in 1999, but was incredibly close to winning three.
He lost in the 1997 final to Grand Forks Central senior Duddy Weisser. Then, when he was set to become, by far, the best player in the state for 1998, a German foreign exchange student, Jan Oermann, popped in for the semester and won it. Lunak cruised to the title as a senior.
At St. Cloud State, Lunak won four North Central Conference singles titles and three doubles titles. The Huskies won three league titles and went to four NCAA tournaments.
"He had tenacity when he was playing," LaDouceur said. "It wasn't about losing a game or a match, he didn't even like losing a point. I remember that about him. He was fearless. He wasn't overly big, but he covered a lot of court and he had all the shots you needed."
After graduating from St. Cloud State, Lunak became the head coach at South Dakota State. He was the youngest head coach in Division I at the time.
He's also coached the University of Minnesota Crookston — where he works as an academic advisor — for 11 years. He has served as both the head and assistant coach at Red River, too.
"He's got that tenacity and intensity as a coach, but he channels it very calmly," LaDouceur said. "The kids really respect him. He's going to explain calmly what they need to do and how to play."