Metamora’s Sopko wins 2026 Clutch Sports Media Boys Tennis Player of the Year

Metamora boys tennis put up its winningest season in program history in 2026 and senior Tommy Sopko was at the center of it all. 

Sopko is Clutch Sports Media’s 2026 Boys Tennis Player of the Year after recording an all-state finish in doubles with teammate Weston Lange and going undefeated in singles matches all season.

Sopko and Lange finished fourth in the state in Class 1A doubles after beating opponents from Macomb, Lake Forest, Dunlap and Crystal Lake South before falling to two pairings from Class 1A state champion Deerfield. Their finish helped Metamora finish in a tie for fourth as a team in Class 1A. The duo also propelled the Redbirds to a sectional title by winning the Class 1A LaSalle-Peru Sectional doubles title.

That sectional title marked Sopko’s third in a row, all of which have come with a different doubles partner. The Metamora senior was a first team all-Mid Illini Conference selection and won the conference singles title. Sopko went 19-1 in singles play and 34-4 in doubles play for a combined record of 53-5 and didn’t lose to a Central Illinois opponent all season long. 

His play aided Metamora in going 27-2, which broke the previous team record of 24 wins in a season. Sopko, who also spent time playing soccer and football in high school, never played tennis before high school and finished his career with 152 wins and two first team all-state finishes. He was a first team selection on Clutch Sports Media’s 2026 Boys Tennis All-Area teams and will play in college at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Hear more about Sopko’s season and his career in our interview with him below. Some answers have been minimally edited for clarity.

What have you been able to reflect and look back on since the season has ended? 

“One thing I really think about is when I was coming into my freshman year and seeing all the really good players in the area and how cool I thought they were and how much I wanted to be them,” Sopko said. “Now that my senior year is wrapped up, I kind of realize I'm in that place that I wanted to be and that's really cool to me. I was able to accomplish my goal from my freshman year.”

What inspired your love for the sport?

“When I came into high school, I had absolutely no idea I was going to play, but I was good friends with Weston [Lange] and he kind of recruited me to play,” Sopko said. “I started playing on JV and then got the call to varsity and that's when it really shot off I'd say. I really loved the practices that Coach Willard did and the connections that coach really made with his players. It made the sport fun to play…it was just a domino effect I'd say and it's kept on spiraling.”

Did you have a favorite match from this past season or one that you felt really good about?

“My favorite match would definitely be our quarterfinal win at state against Crystal Lake South [to get to] the final four, that one meant a lot to us,” Sopko said. “It was a big jump, it's worth the most points too for your team and we were super excited for that. Another win that was really important to us was our dual match win over Dunlap, we've been close a couple years; last year we went up 4-2 in singles and lost all three doubles and were unable to clinch it but this year, it was really fun. For me personally, after my junior year, my record against Dunlap was in the ballpark of 0-9 [or] 0-10 and this year, I went 4-0 so that felt really good.”

What’s a motto or mindset you take when you’re competing?

“Beat people and have them like us because we obviously are trying to win, but it's really great building connections with the teams and friendships with the teams and not making this a grudge sport or something like that,” Sopko said. “It’s really great being able to play and then have fun and talk to them afterwards so that's definitely really important to me.”

Aside from winning, what was your favorite memory of the season? 

“To coach, it's really important that we not only are a good team, but we're good teammates and good friends so we spend a lot of time together outside of tennis,” Sopko said. “We have team meals about every week. We'll go to another house and do stuff. Our hotel trips are so fun, they're so exciting, because we bring games and we hang out with each other. It’s really hard to pick out just one, but I would say bus trips we have as a team. We put all our phones up at the front and we play trivia, we play cards, we make up our own games, we do riddles. That's probably my favorite part, is the drive there and then drive back.”

What are your future goals at Illinois Wesleyan?

“I’m really excited about going to Wesleyan and we have a phenomenal recruiting class of nine guys this year,” Sopko said. “I'm going with my friend Weston [Lange], but also some other guys we know from the season that are really good, so that's going to be a lot of fun. My goal is obviously to keep working, and I got to make the line up for sure because in college tennis, nothing's guaranteed. It's going to be a struggle, but I'll put the work in for that, and I definitely know how special our class is and I want to make sure we have good connections. I know that our junior [and] senior year, we’ll be a real weapon for sure so I obviously want to have some fun. I know this is a really good group.”