Two of the best high school boys tennis players in the state were born 5 minutes apart and grew up in the same household, but in many ways that’s where the similarities end.
Cale and Truman Vogel of Appleton West – Cale is older by 5 minutes – are headed to the WIAA state tennis tournament this week for the third consecutive season. Truman is the No. 6 seed in Division 1 singles and Cale is the No. 14 seed.
Fittingly for the 18-year-old twins, both have a 25-3 record entering the tournament that begins June 4 at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison.
“It’s a really special thing for our school,” said second-year West coach Austin Huggins, who played tennis in high school at Appleton North. “Demographically, we don’t get kids like this. This is a once-in-a-blue-moon-type thing. I think our entire school, our entire staff population, the student population, kind of rallies behind these two, obviously in a positive way. I sent out an email congratulating them. It got like 60 little hearts almost immediately.”
Truman, who played No. 1 singles for the Terrors this season, won two matches at state last year as a junior and won one match as a sophomore. Cale, who played No. 2 singles for the Terrors, won one match at state last year and lost in the first round as a sophomore.
Being able to represent Appleton West on the state’s biggest stage for the third year in a row is something they don’t take lightly, especially since they didn’t start playing tennis until the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I definitely think it’s a big achievement, just the fact that Truman and I started a lot later than all of our opponents. A lot of them have been playing since they were just able to walk,” Cale said. “Truman and I started during COVID in seventh or eighth grade. Just being able to improve constantly and represent the school. … It means a lot, just being able to prove that a school that gets looked down upon by a lot of other schools is still able to compete and do well.”
Appleton West twins got late start playing tennis
The Vogel twins come from an athletic family of seven children to parents Ben and Lesley. Older brother Jack played tennis at Appleton East and older brother Preston played tennis at West.
Even though they were late to the game as far as taking up the sport of tennis, Cale said growing up in an athletic and competitive household helped drive the younger siblings, and having a twin in Truman added to the motivation.
“Having a twin makes you want to push even more,” Cale said. “One of us will get better than the other, the other starts pushing harder, and then it’s just this back and forth that never ends.
“We never really wanted to play too many sports growing up, and then COVID hit and we fell in love with tennis.”
The personalities of the twins are very different, according to Huggins. He said Cale is more outgoing and has a bigger personality. He also said Cale is a mentor and teacher to the younger players in the program.
“He’s the only reason we have depth on this team,” Huggins said. “He single-handedly got probably, say, nine of his friends to try out his sophomore year and built up a team around him. And I think a lot of that gives him confidence. He’s our team captain. The team voted on him at the start of the year to be the team captain. The team rallies around him, that positive energy.”
Huggins said Truman is the opposite, calling him “completely analytical” and a thinker. He thinks the twins have similar skill levels, but added Truman is perhaps the better competitor.
“He doesn’t let anything affect him,” Huggins said. “Just a kind of like bulletproof mentality. I don’t like playing against Truman simply because he won’t take it easy on me. I can’t beat either of them. I can rally with them but if it comes to playing a match, they run circles around me.”
Vogel twins never seriously considered playing doubles together
With two highly talented players who are so familiar with each other on and off the court, it’s natural to wonder if playing doubles together was something they ever considered.
Huggins believes the twins could have challenged for a state title as a doubles pair, but ultimately they all agreed they would pursue singles.
“We love playing singles, we love the competition,” Truman said. “Doubles, it’s just a little less competitive. It’s more fun, I think. It’s more teamwork-based. Cale and I suck at teamwork. It’s really bad. We played this league, and we were playing against these relatively old people, and they almost beat us. It was a little embarrassing. It just shows we’re not built for doubles. We’re built for singles.”
Although their styles could complement each other in doubles – Cale is a bit more aggressive and likes to go for risky shots while Truman prefers to hang around on the baseline and chase down balls for long rallies – there is another reason teaming up wasn’t the best option.
“We don’t work well together on the doubles court. We argue and bicker a lot,” Cale said.
Vogel twins hope to make podium, then it’s off to Hamline University
Whatever happens this week in Madison, the Vogel twins will continue their tennis careers together in college. Both will play next season at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Cale said having his tennis future secured heading into the final season of high school took a lot of pressure off him, but he still hungers to do well this week. His goal is to make the podium alongside his brother.
“That’d be really cool if Truman and I were both able to do that, because we’d be able to do something pretty nice for Appleton West and our senior year, and we have the ability and the skill to do it. But it’s just pulling it off,” he said.
Truman is also relaxed heading into his final high school matches, but his competitive nature is ready to take over in Madison.
“Obviously, when you’re in a tournament you always want to go in to win,” Truman said. “It’s our last year. I’ll just give it my all and whatever happens, happens. There’s no pressure. We play college tennis in a couple months, so there’s no pressure at all.”
The Vogels aren’t the only Fox Valley Association players who could contend for podium spots this weekend.
Colin Meixl of Kimberly is the No. 5 seed in Division 1 singles and Hunter Brown of Neenah is the No. 7 seed. Neenah’s top doubles team of Brady Lawatsch and Luke Grassl is the No. 3 seed.
WIAA state tennis qualifiers
Division 1 singles
Henry Farrell, jr., Neenah (23-11); Colin Meixl, jr., Kimberly (26-3); Gavin Feng, so., Appleton North (13-15); Hunter Brown, jr., Neenah (24-9); Truman Vogel, sr., Appleton West (25-3); Cale Vogel, sr., Appleton West (25-3).
Division 1 doubles
Hunter Holschuh, sr., and Jackson Lawson, sr., Kimberly (16-13); Eric Graf, jr., and Jack Mendolla, so., Appleton North (26-3); Brady Lawatsch, sr., and Luke Grassl, jr., Neenah (26-7); Sam Hahnke, sr., and Spencer Munson, sr., Appleton North (20-7).
Division 2 singles
Kojo Norman, sr., Xavier (11-6).
Division 2 doubles
Sean Osland, sr., and Aiden Tines, jr., St. Mary Catholic (6-2); Brock Polzin, sr., and Noah Broeckert, sr., Xavier (7-9).
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Vogel twins hope to bring home state titles for Appleton West tennis
Reporting by Mike Sherry, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
