Sophomore tennis player discusses life as a multi-athlete

Stephen Vogl may don an IU tennis shirt, but he has a sports past that consists of more than tennis balls and rackets.

The sophomore tennis player didn’t spend his childhood days solely on the tennis court.

He competed on the basketball court, soccer field, baseball diamond and in the swimming pool.

Of all the sports Vogl was involved in as a child, he excelled most in the pool.
Before reaching his teenage years, Vogl was ranked No. 25 in the nation for the 50-yard butterfly and was also in the nation’s top-30 for the 100-yard fly.

He served another brief time in the pool playing water polo for a club team in high school.

“Swimming in the chlorine is actually really good for asthma, so that’s how I started,” Vogl said. “I started getting kind of good, so I continued doing it and then I realized that staring at the bottom of the pool – you can only do so much of that.”
Then there was baseball.

At the age of 15, Vogl’s mother told him since baseball and tennis were in the same season, he would need to make a decision on whether he wanted to continue playing with a team or playing individually.

He chose tennis.

And Vogl has compiled a stats sheet that includes a 55-4 high school record, no losses in his senior season and a 13-8 collegiate doubles record with then-sophomore Lachlan Ferguson.

“I’m an only child, so I’ve been put in the spotlight my entire life,” Vogl said of his choice to play tennis instead of baseball. “I enjoy having all the pressure on my side, as opposed to having the decision be up to a teammate or someone else ... I’d rather it be myself.”

IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said the athleticism is what caught his eye during Vogl’s recruitment.

“When you’re a coach and you work on player development, you look at kids and what you think their upside’s going to be,” Bloemendaal said. “And I always thought he had a tremendous upside because of his movement on the court and his size.”

Voted “Most Athletic” and Athlete of the Year during his high school days in Connecticut, Vogl racked in many sports related accolades.

The nationally ranked childhood swimmer became No. 74 in the nation and No. 2 in his home state’s ranking of singles tennis players.

Vogl’s participation in multiple sports as a child has helped him as a Hoosier tennis player, Bloemendaal said.

“There’s a value to cross training, which is very difficult because tennis is a year-round sport,” he said. “But anytime you add some other sport, it just helps you as an athlete – your overall agility just seems to get better.”

Vogl’s speed is not always used on the court, since he normally has to share space with his doubles partner.

Things differ, though, in the pool.

Every Monday the team swims as part of its training. This conditioning is where his teammate, sophomore Jeremy Langer, and the rest of the Hoosiers realized Vogl could swim.

“He’s really fast in the pool,” Langer said. “He’s the only one that can do a flip turn on the team. When we do our pool workouts, he just destroys everyone.”

Vogl agreed that he swims faster than his teammates, and said he often messes around just to stay close to them.

“Oh yeah, they call me ‘Michael Phelps Jr.’ in the pool,” Vogl said. “I get a dirty look every once in a while when I do two laps in 30 seconds and everyone else is battling.”

Although there are times when Vogl still dreams of lacing up his baseball cleats, he said he’s happy to be a Hoosier tennis player.

“I miss that every once in a while, but I’m pretty happy I stuck with tennis,” he said.

“Having a chance to serve out a match is more fun for me than watching a teammate step up in the ninth inning and have him win the game or lose the game for us.”