AUGUST 2023

SPORTS
Terrific
Tennis Trio
Meet three Chaldean
girls who won
championships
BY STEVE STEIN
Raegan Tomina. Kayla Nafso.
Alana Hindo. Three Chaldean
girls, three winners of high
school state championships in tennis
this past spring.
Tomina won the No. 2 singles title
in Division 1 just before she graduated
from Bloomfield Hills. Nafso and Hindo
were half of the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles
state championship teams in Division 4,
playing for Bloomfield Hills Academy of
the Sacred Heart. Nafso will be a senior
and Hindo will be a junior this fall.
All three girls were named to the
Michigan High School Tennis Coaches
Association’s All-State team for their
division.
Their tennis journeys include losing
a season to the COVID-19 pandemic,
having sisters who also were tennis
stars at their school, changing spots in
their team’s lineup, and transferring to
another school.
Raegan Tomina
Tomina, 17, who lives in Bloomfield
Hills, is moving on to Oakland University
to pursue a career in nursing. Her
competitive tennis career is most likely
over. “I’ve played competitive tennis for
a long time, and I loved playing tennis in
high school,” she said. “I’ll miss it a lot,
but it’s time to move on to new things.”
Two of the new things are pickleball
and reading. “I love pickleball;
It’s my new tennis,” Tomina said. “As
for reading, I really didn’t like it until a
couple years ago. But a found a couple
genres I like, murder mysteries and romance
novels.”
After losing her freshman tennis
season at Bloomfield Hills to the
pandemic, Tomina won the Division
1 state championship at No. 2 doubles
as a sophomore. Her sister Hannah
won the state title at No. 1 doubles for
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HINDO FAMILY
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NAFSO FAMILY
Bloomfield Hills that year as a senior.
“I really didn’t want to play doubles
when I was a sophomore, but
I ended up loving it,” Raegan said.
After starting her junior year at No. 1
doubles, Raegan was moved to No. 2
singles and lost in the Division 1 state
quarterfinals. She was at No. 2 singles
all season this past spring and won another
state championship.
Hannah, now 20 and a junior at the
University of Michigan who also plans
to be a nurse, won the Division 1 No. 1
doubles state championship as a sophomore
and senior, sandwiching a lost
junior season because of the pandemic.
Another Tomina sister is ready
to make her mark on the Bloomfield
Hills girls tennis team. Sophia, 14, the
youngest of the sibling trio, will be a
freshman in high school this fall.
Kayla Nafso
Nafso, 17, a Bloomfield Hills resident,
has played for the No. 1 doubles state
championship in Division 4 all three
years of her Sacred Heart career. She
won with her sister Marisa in 2021 but
lost with her in 2022.
Because of graduation losses, it is
not certain Kayla will be back at No.
1 doubles for Sacred Heart come next
spring. She may be needed to play
singles, probably No. 1. “I don’t love
singles like I love doubles,” she said.
“But if my team needs me to play singles,
I’ll do it.”
Clockwise from above: State champion Raegan Tomina is surrounded by
family members (from left) Sophia, Kelly, Hannah and Patrick.
Alana Hindo won a state championship as a sophomore.
Kayla Nafso (right) and her doubles partner Jade Horcoff celebrate not only
their regional championship, but Sacred Heart’s team regional championship
this past spring.
It has been a busy summer for
Kayla, who attended the University of
Notre Dame’s two-week, “History of
London as a Global Trading Capital,”
program last month in England.
Back home, she’s involved in Focus:
HOPE’s Food for Seniors program,
which provides thousands of seniors
with monthly food packages.
Alana Hindo
Hindo, 16, who lives in Commerce Township
and is active at St. Thomas Chaldean
Catholic Church in West Bloomfield, has
left Sacred Heart and is transferring to
Birmingham Marian because she wants
to attend a bigger high school.
Because she’s transferring, she
can’t play golf or tennis for Marian this
school year. She said she’d likely resume
playing one or both sports when
she’s a senior.
Hindo played No. 3 singles for Sacred
Heart as a freshman. She wanted
to play doubles with close friend and
practice partner Presley Krywko this
past spring, and they were given that
opportunity. “Did I think Presley and I
could win a state championship?” she
asked. “I didn’t think it could happen
at first, but as the season wore on, we
got more confident,” said Hindo.
The Scoreboard
So how did the three girls win their
state championships in June?
Tomina, the No. 3 seed at No. 2
singles in Division 1, defeated two familiar
foes en route to her state title.
She beat No. 6 seed Abbey Labate of
Clarkston 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals
and No. 4 seed Katie Fu of Rochester
Adams 7-5, 6-0 in the state championship
match. Tomina had defeated both
earlier in the season, including Fu in
the regional title match.
Nafso and her partner Jade Horcoff,
the No. 3 seed, had a tough road to the
No. 1 doubles state championship in
Division 4. They had to rally for a 5-7,
6-3, 6-4 win over No. 2 seed Brooke Tietz
and Alivia Mott of Grand Rapids West
Catholic in the semifinals, and they
turned back No. 1 seed Sophie Chen
and Lauren Ye of Ann Arbor Greenhills
7-5, 7-6 (2) in the championship match.
Hindo and Krywko were the No. 1
seed at No. 3 doubles. They dropped
just nine games in three matches before
their 6-2, 7-6 (3) win over No. 2
seed Meera Pandey and Meera Tewari
of Greenhills in the title match. They
had beaten the Greenhills duo twice
earlier in the season in close matches.
Tennis fans will be sad to see this
trio move on but rest assured, there
will be others to take their place.
Bloomfield Hills junior Julia Yousif,
another young Chaldean, was the No.
2 seed at No. 3 singles at the Division 1
state tournament. She advanced to the
semifinals in the flight.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TOMINA FAMILY
40 CHALDEAN NEWS AUGUST 2023