If it looks like Colton Buffington is playing tennis to a different drummer, it's because he is. The Westlake sophomore, his worn Demons baseball cap turned backward, bounces around the court with self-help tunes only he can summon, mostly by Guns N' Roses, Rage Against the Machine or Lil Wayne.
If it looks like Colton Buffington is playing tennis to a different drummer, it's because he is.
The Westlake sophomore, his worn Demons baseball cap turned backward, bounces around the court with self-help tunes only he can summon, mostly by Guns N' Roses, Rage Against the Machine or Lil Wayne.
Hey, don't mess with success.
"I'm a die-hard Guns N' Roses fan," said Buffington, who went 22-4 this season and finished third in the Division I singles state tournament. "I feel like going to a beat to calm myself down. The music is about being relaxed."
Buffington is The Plain Dealer's Boys Tennis Player of the Year.
After losing in the state semifinals, he came back to defeat Ethan Dunbar of Cloverleaf in the third-place match. A week earlier, Dunbar had defeated him in the Oberlin district final.
"I was more nervous than I should have been in that semifinal," said Buffington, who led, 3-0, in that match. "I let my emotions get to me. But I settled down and I was able to get Ethan."
After bowing out in the opening round of the state tournament as a freshman, Buffington said his only goal this season was to improve on that showing.
"The difference was getting a little bigger, a little stronger," said Buffington, who will play in USTA age-division tournaments this summer. "I didn't want to go backwards. But I was still the underdog, so I wasn't expected to do anything fantastic."