By: Scott Bentley | Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle | Published November 20, 2025
MIDLAND — After back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2023 and 2024, Birmingham Seaholm won the Division 2 boys tennis state title for the 2025 season Oct. 23 at Midland Tennis Center.
Seaholm’s boys tennis team has been on the cusp of a title for years now, and this fall the program was able to finish the job with a comfortable five-point cushion over Byron Center and the rest of the field.
“Our goal every year is to build on the previous year,” Seaholm head coach Nick Shaheen said. “We’ve had a lot of fun enjoying this.”
Not only is this state title three seasons in the making, but it’s also Seaholm High School’s first-ever boys tennis state championship.
“For these boys, their motivation was to be the first team” to win a boys state tennis title, Shaheen said. “We really just wanted this to be a good representation of what can happen if you put in hard work in the Seaholm program.”
Seaholm won three of the eight events during the state finals. Freshman Charlie Griffith won the third singles flight, senior Joaquim Flory won the fourth singles flight, and the duo of seniors Britton Leo and Alex Ting brought Seaholm a victory in the top doubles flight.
The team received amazing production across the board, with a Seaholm player making the semifinals in all eight events.
“Anybody that has known our program in previous years knows that we’ve been more balanced in our doubles than our singles,” Shaheen explained. “It’s led to teams that haven’t quite had the type of depth that you need to make a deep run and win a championship. But this year we had that perfect balance.”
Another key factor in the championship run was focus. Due to weather, some players started their flights outdoors and had to finish indoors. Changing courts and environment in the middle of a bracket certainly isn’t ideal, but is something that the players pushed through.
“It came down to the boys’ focus. They were really adaptable both days,” Shaheen said. “I give a lot of credit that day one started outdoors and then went indoors. … We handled the conditions well.”
While ultimately it was the boys who played and performed in less-than-ideal conditions, the players credit the coaches for having them prepared.
“It was a little bit challenging. … I think the coaches did a really good job of preparing everyone,” Seaholm senior Britton Leo said. “I think the team as a whole really came together and realized what we needed to do to come out victorious.”
This title has an impact on people outside of the team itself. Seeing the years of hard work and implementing a winning culture has finally resulted in a state championship.
“I think that the previous teams really set the tone. … We had great mentors and great captains that gave us the message that this is really going to be a whole team effort,” Leo explained. “What me and my other captains tried to instill in our team is how much we needed everyone to be bought in.”
Everyone needed to be bought in, and everyone was bought in.
“It starts with all of the offseason training. This year, we had basically everyone play around the year,” Leo said. “Seeing so many great players on our team … I think being surrounded by talent really pushed everyone.”
Seaholm’s girls tennis team has eight state titles and won a championship in two of the last three seasons. While the boys team has been consistently competitive for years, the girls team has always been a powerhouse. Now, the hope is that the school can be a premiere tennis program for both boys and girls going forward.
“We’re very friendly with the girls program and we support them 100%,” Shaheen said. “The boys are starting to get a little more recognition (this year). To see us elevate ourselves to (the girls) level … and to see the hard work pay off with results is really great to see.”
This is a team, and a class, that has left a permanent legacy on Seaholm High School and Seaholm’s boys tennis program.