Submitted photo Mitchell Marocher (front row, far right) and Garrett Gardner (second row, far right) have remained connected throughout their tennis careers.

Even though they went to different high schools and colleges, Garrett Gardner and Mitch Maroscher have always been linked throughout their competitive tennis careers, but it didn’t start off that way.

The two both had high tennis aspirations, but Gardner was a sophomore playing for Poland, while Maroscher was finishing off his high school tennis career as a senior at Salem. When the two schools played each other, the pair didn’t face off against one another either since Gardner was Poland’s No. 2 singles player, while Maroscher was Salem’s No. 1.

Eventually, through “word of mouth,” they connected, and Maroscher reached out to Gardner to see if he wanted to train and hit together during the week.

“We used to hit with each other at least once or twice a week during our high school careers,” Gardner said.

However, since he was older, Maroscher graduated and went off to play college tennis, first at Scottsdale Community College at the JUCO level before making the jump to Division I for a couple years at Grand Canyon University. Maroscher then finished his collegiate career at Youngstown State.

But the two didn’t lose touch with each other.

“Every summer, (Maroscher) would always hit me up anytime he was back in town and we would hit it off,” Gardner said. “Mitch and I have known each other for probably at least the last 12 years — just playing all the time and hitting with each other.”

Then, Gardner went off to college at Valparaiso, where he played four years also at the Division I level.

Their link continued at the college level, especially when Valparaiso made the trip to face YSU in March 2017.

“We always had a really nice match,” Gardner said. “We always used to have some good battles.”

Even though both players have been out of college for several years now, they both have managed to stay similarly active and competitive with tennis.

At the end of August, Gardner and Maroscher were both part of an adult club team, based out of Oxford Athletic Club in Wexford, Pa., that won the USTA Men’s 5.0 Middle States Championship in Princeton, NJ. Their title qualifies them to participate in the USTA League 5.0 National Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona from Oct. 21-23.

“It’s nice to be able to travel and go to a new place, while at the same time being able to do it in a way where you’re doing something that you love, playing a sport,” Maroscher said. “It’s always good to meet new people, see a new place and make new experiences. It’s a fun part of the game.”

This will be Gardner’s second time making it to the national tournament, while it will be Maroscher’s first time, since this is his first year as part of the team.

While practicing some with Gardner last year in Akron, the team’s captain reached out to Maroscher at Gardner’s recommendation and asked if he wanted to be part of the team and play in the USTA adult league.

“I thought it would be a good thing to still be competing in the sport in some way,” Maroscher said.

Gardner said the team was able to qualify for nationals relatively smoothly the first time back in 2019, but added that it was much tougher this year.

In the final match of the Middle States tournament, Gardner said their team’s No. 2 doubles was able to secure the victory for them, winning in a third-set super tiebreaker.

“It could have gone either way in that match, but we ended up winning to beat the team 2-1, solidifying us going to nationals,” Gardner said. “It was really exciting to get back this year. (Mitch) spent a lot of time in Arizona, so he’s excited to go back to Scottsdale and see a lot of the people that he knew and worked with.”

Their team consists of five players (two doubles teams and one singles player) — Gardner plays No. 1 doubles for the team with Eric Alek, who played collegiately at Texas A&M, while Maroscher is the No. 1 singles player.

“Mitch has been playing better singles, he’s put the hammer down and has been very solid at that position,” Gardner said. “Towards the end of my college career, I was becoming more of a better doubles player than singles, so they really felt compelled to put me there. With three matches, it was just kind of a best-of-three. It’s not a lot, so every single one counts.”

Gardner said the format will be slightly different at the national tournament, however. Instead, they will play a round robin against every other 5.0 adult team in the tournament and the team with the best overall record at the end will be named the national champion.

Their competition on other teams will consist of a lot of former college players, just like Gardner and Maroscher, in addition to some older players with prior college and/or professional experience as well.

“It’s quite a battle,” Gardner said. “It’s the closest thing to putting that college uniform on again and playing competitive matches.”