“They’re also probably another big reason why I got into it,” Aiden Yeager said. “I’d always go up to the courts, hit with them. I’d go up to some of the summer practices where anyone was allowed to show up. I’d show up as a little, little sixth and seventh grader and play with them.”
Now a senior at Northwestern, Aiden Yeager is a three-time Central Buckeye Conference Player of the Year and focused on capping his high school career back at the state tournament.
Across three-plus seasons with the Warriors, Aiden Yeager is 104-9 through Wednesday. He checked off win No. 100 in his career at Northwestern on April 17 at home against Urbana, joining sister Macy Yeager with the accomplishment.
“That was pretty special, just to achieve it so fairly early in the season I felt like for my senior year,” Aiden Yeager said. “It was really a fun achievement. Just knowing I’ve played that much, that many games, that many matches.”
Aiden Yeager is also unbeaten in CBC play throughout his Warriors career. He went 13-0 his freshman year in 2022, 14-0 in both 2023 and 2024 and he’s currently 10-0 in the conference this season.
Last year, Aiden Yeager advanced to the state tournament, and he was the first Northwestern boys tennis player to advance to state in 39 years. He posted a career-high 33 wins and was named to the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association All-State Division II Singles Second Team after falling in the quarterfinal against Bexley freshman Henry Lessard 6-1, 6-2.
Northwestern coach Geoff Springer, who was an assistant under former head coach Colin Imwalle, has coached Aiden Yeager throughout high school and said “we knew we had a good player” when they first met during freshman year. Over his prep career, Aiden Yeager’s experience in United States Tennis Association matches and dedication to getting better propelled him to where he is today, something Springer said the student-athlete “had to work” toward.
“I think in his mind he realizes that he’s played the toughest kids in Ohio, and he’s played a lot of those kids, and I mean, he’s played the toughest kids out of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia,” Springer said. “That’s given him a quiet confidence when he’s playing these high school matches. A lot of the best players in the Midwest are from Ohio, so he realizes that, but he also realizes that, I mean, playing in these USTA matches has given him the confidence to realize that he can compete with anybody. He could beat anybody on any given day.”
When his career at Northwestern wraps up, Aiden Yeager will continue playing tennis at Ohio Northern of Division III.
“Ohio Northern was kind of just like a really nice school because I wasn’t really too interested in a big, big school either for just like my major as well,” Aiden Yeager said. “Ohio Northern just kind of felt like a nice, nice, good pick. And I also knew several of the players that go there now that are on the tennis team. I’ve played with a lot of them, so that was kind of another positive, another benefit to going there.”
Springer said “we didn’t anticipate that he would be as good as he was” after Aiden Yeager went 25-4 and 13-0 in CBC play as a freshman in 2022. Since his freshman season, Aiden Yeager has competed in first singles for Northwestern.
Springer said Aiden Yeager’s growth as a tennis player progressed quickly from there.
“He’s gotten better every year,” Springer said. “I think he realized that he wanted to be a collegiate tennis player, and he really started working on this game. And he’s gotten continually better every year of his career.”
Aiden Yeager said he sometimes thinks about the impact he’ll leave behind at Northwestern. He said “it’s just cool” thinking about how his teammates look to him and that he’s “known for something there.”
Pressure is present “knowing each match you’re kind of expected to win,” Aiden Yeager said, though with sectionals beginning Monday, something he hasn’t lost yet during his Northwestern career, he’s leaning into one more high school postseason run.
“I’ve been playing well,” Aiden Yeager said. “I’m looking forward to getting past sectionals and then looking on to getting a good seed coming into districts and hopefully coming out of districts for state as well. But yeah, I mean, I feel good. I feel like I’m playing the best tennis I’ve ever played.”
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