14-year-old Yevgeniy Kolomiyets is Cascade High’s No. 1 tennis player

One person’s trash became Yevgeniy Kolomiyets’ treasure.

As a 7-year-old, Kolomiyets and his friend Max liked to dumpster dive at their Everett apartment complex. One day, Kolomiyets found a racquetball racket in the rubbish. After winning a tug-of-war with Max, he took his new-found possession home.

“After I got it, my dad would turn the TV on to a pro (tennis) match and I would just copy what they did,” Kolomiyets said.

By watching television, Kolomiyets learned from the best — including pro Novak Djokovic, his favorite player — even he wasn’t getting a lot of court time.

“I didn’t actually play a lot of tennis. It was just literally swinging and copying the pros,” Kolomiyets said.

Seven years later, Kolomiyets is the No. 1 singles player for Cascade High school as a freshman. He finished the regular season 10-5 and is preparing for the opening of the district tennis meet on Tuesday.

And it all started with those imitation swings in front of the TV.

“I didn’t actually hit a ball until we found the Columbia Athletic Center (in Everett),” Kolomiyets said.

There, as a 7-year-old new to tennis, he began to work on his game, which features a strong serve and forehand. His arrival at Cascade coincided with the departure of former Cascade star Patrick Chung, who was the Bruins’ No. 1 singles player the past four seasons and now attends Gonzaga University.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” Cascade head coach Brian Cherniak said. “Patrick Chung really owned that spot for quite a while. It’s like all of a sudden Patrick leaves and here’s this kid from nowhere that’s coming to Cascade and is able to take that spot.”

Cherniak, in his first year as the Bruins’ varsity coach, is in his seventh season as a coach at Cascade. He said that having Kolomiyets is incredibly helpful because — despite the 14-year-old’s age — he’s like another coach on the court.

“He’s really bonded with these juniors and seniors on varsity — and he’s a leader,” Cherniak said. “He’s a natural teacher as well, and that’s the cool thing. He’s able to teach. So these kids that are four-year tennis players who are seniors, he’s like, ‘Let me help you with this. Here’s what I see.’ And he does it in a way that is just really easy to understand. He’s just an excellent teacher, as well as a player. Just an all-around great kid. He’s very mature for a 14-year-old, which blows me away. Sometimes I forget he’s 14.”

Kolomiyets, who moved to the United States from Ukraine when he was 1½, said he’s happiest when he has a tennis racket in his hand.

“I’m really happy right now where I’m at,” he said. “Lately, I’ve been improving really fast. Every time I step on the court I’ve been really happy. High school tennis is five days a week, two and a half hours a day, so I’m playing a lot of tennis and whenever I’m playing tennis, I’m happy.”

Cherniak said Kolomiyets suffered some growing pains in his first high school season when he faced the likes of Jackson’s Ben Mietzner and Jimmy Hua of Kamiak.

“For him, the goal is really to just experience high school tennis,” Cherniak said. “He’s a club player and because he’s 14, when he plays tournaments, the 17- and 18-year olds aren’t even in his league, so this is really his first time playing these seniors and juniors. They just have more experience. He knows this year is a growing year and after every match he takes notes. He really thinks it through. He knows that excellence isn’t accidental.”

Kolomiyets isn’t done growing this season. The Wesco 4A District tournament begins Tuesday at Mount Vernon High School and he has high hopes for his first trip to districts.

“I’ve been pretty happy with the way I’ve been playing lately so I’m pretty confident going into districts,” Kolomiyets said. “If I could make it to state, that’d be great. That’s really the goal.”

Added Cherniak: “I think everyone’s got to watch out for him. This year he got his feet wet and he’s just developing his game.”

And now Kolomiyets is playing with a proper racket.