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Alan Kogoy and Veronica Corby united in marriage

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2017 Times Leader Boys Tennis All-Stars

<p>KINGSTON &#8211; Allison Joanlanne won&#8217;t forget Eamon Gibbons as a freshman.</p><p>A quiet young man, the Wyoming Seminary head coach was impressed by his knowledge of the game, and how hard he was willing to work each and every day.</p><p>Yet, one thing stood out.</p><p>&#8220;He was so polite and respectful,&#8221; Joanlanne said. &#8220;He always treated everyone with respect. It didn&#8217;t matter if it was family, friends, teammates or his opponent. That&#8217;s how I knew Eamon was going to develop into a great young man.&#8221;</p><p>Gibbons also developed into a champ. He helped guide Sem to a District 2 Class 2A team title with a victory over Scranton Prep, and also had gold placed around his neck after he partnered with Andrew Schukraft to win a district doubles&#8217; title.</p><p>Gibbons, a senior, has been named Times Leader Boys&#8217; Tennis Player of the Year.</p><p>&#8220;The memories with the team were some of the best times of my life,&#8221; he said. &#8220;During practice, after matches or just in classes. I&#8217;m glad that I was able to play at Sem. Districts came up on us quickly because of the snow storm. And it&#8217;s already a short season the way it was. It went by quickly. Freshman and sophomore year, you know in the back of your mind that you have a few more years of this. This year, I was thinking to myself, &#8216;Where did it all go?&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Gibbons has been a fixture in the Wyoming Seminary starting lineup since his freshman year. He started in a doubles&#8217; spot, but as a sophomore, worked his way to No. 1 singles &#8211; where he has played for the past three years.</p><p>&#8220;My sophomore year, it was tough because I was younger,&#8221; Gibbons said. &#8220;There is a lot of good competition, especially when you start playing Prep and traveling to some of these tournaments outside of the area. You see that competition each match. I&#8217;m honored that I was able to hold that position for so long.&#8221;</p><p>Yet, the soft-spoken senior doesn&#8217;t focus on himself.</p><p>Ask him about his final year at Sem, and he doesn&#8217;t talk about his singles&#8217; play.</p><p>Instead, it&#8217;s about the district team victory over Scranton Prep or teaming up with Schukraft for the gold in doubles.</p><p>Really, that team victory over Scranton Prep was the icing on the cake. But it didn&#8217;t stop there as Sem went on to beat Lancaster Mennonite and Quaker Valley at the state tournament before bowing out to Lancaster Country Day in the 2A semifinals.</p><p>&#8220;Our main goal was to win that team title because Scranton Prep kind of had our number in the past,&#8221; Gibbons said. &#8220;It was awesome. Everyone was just so focused on getting to that match, and beating Prep. Finally getting there, and winning, it was something. I&#8217;ll never forget the looks on everyone&#8217;s face and the excitement. It&#8217;s a great memory for me. It was tense at times, at least for me. Our coach just told us to focus on your match, and don&#8217;t let anything distract you. I lost my match to a really good player, which I was disappointed with. But I saw that we were up in other matches, and I thought that we would be fine.&#8221;</p><p>After earning a silver medal in singles&#8217; play, Gibbons and Schukraft rolled through district doubles &#8211; including a huge win over Prep&#8217;s Jack Habeeb and Rhys Kelly in the final. It was a match where the Sem boys won 12 of the 14 games contested.</p><p>&#8220;My partner Andrew is one of my good friends, and we didn&#8217;t have the opportunity to partner up as juniors,&#8221; Gibbons said. &#8220;Winning a district gold is always special, but sharing the honor with him was even better. I think we could have gone a little further than we did at states, but just being there as a senior is what you hope for. The experience was nice. That was my first time at tennis states. I wouldn&#8217;t want to end it any other way.&#8221;</p><p>Tennis doesn&#8217;t end for Gibbons. These days, he can be found working on his game at Birchwood or sliding across the clay at the Scranton Tennis Club. It&#8217;s all about preparing for the future as Gibbons will play tennis at Hamilton College in the fall where he&#8217;ll focus on biology and environmental science.</p><p>He&#8217;s ready for the challenge, and Joanlanne knows her former player will be ready.</p><p>&#8220;Eamon has been playing for a long time, so he knows what to expect,&#8221; Joanlanne said. &#8220;I told him he was going to have to work that much harder because college tennis is a different game. And he will. There&#8217;s no doubt that he has the drive and passion to succeed. That&#8217;s the kind of person Eamon is.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Eamon Gibbons helped lead Wyoming Seminary to the District 2 Class 2A team title. He teamed up with Andrew Schukraft to win district gold in doubles. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Eamon-Gibbons-Spring.jpg</photo0><caption0>Eamon Gibbons helped lead Wyoming Seminary to the District 2 Class 2A team title. He teamed up with Andrew Schukraft to win district gold in doubles. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Eamon Gibbons has been a driving force on Seminary&#8217;s lineup</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Fox</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Seminary’s Eamon Gibbons, Times Leader’s Boys Tennis POY