Chizever Tries to Be Star for All Seasons

There are times when a young athlete can’t avoid the hype.

There are players so endowed with athletic ability that it would seem foolish letting their talent go to waste.

Geoff Chizever was one of them. He picked up a racket at age 4 and within six years became the top-ranked player in the Southern California Tennis Assn.’s boys’ 10-and-under division. He was showered with tournament invitations and selected by college coaches as the local player most likely to turn pro.

Given Chizever’s extroverted manner, it’s hard to imagine he wanted to step out of the spotlight.

But when tennis became a burden, he had no problem walking away.

“I got burnt out,” said Chizever, who dropped off the circuit before he became a teenager. “Junior tennis is crazy. Every weekend you had to go somewhere else.”

His early exodus was not a denouncement of the sport. It was a declaration of love for all sports.

Now a senior at Calabasas Viewpoint, Chizever is a three-sport athlete who has set plenty of records at the school.

He has been the Patriots’ No. 1 singles player in all of his high school matches. He holds every tennis record for a singles player at Viewpoint, including a winning percentage of 97%.

Chizever, a strong baseline player with superior court coverage, has never lost a set in the Liberty League and is undefeated this season (48-0 overall). Viewpoint is 14-2.

Last season, Chizever helped the Patriots reach the Southern Section Division V semifinals, where they lost, 14-4, to eventual champion Cerritos Whitney. He advanced to the third round of the section’s individual singles tournament before dropping a match to Brentwood’s Eric McKean.

Chizever has never stopped playing recreational tennis, and he still teaches the sport over the summer. But he doesn’t compete in tournaments. Nor does he take any time off during the season.

“I like to be active,” Chizever said. “I can’t imagine staying at home.”

For all four years, Chizever has been Viewpoint’s varsity quarterback and starting point guard. During tennis season, he has found a way to incorporate both sports into his shtick. He plays matches wearing basketball shorts. He dribbles a tennis ball through his legs, tosses it to his opponent like a quarterback, and kicks it around like a hacky sack between points.

“I’ve seen opponents get intimidated by his antics,” Viewpoint Coach Asif Azhar said. “If he played soccer, he’d be the best on the team.”

Football has emerged as Chizever’s favorite sport, and he holds almost every passing record at the school.

He earned first-team All-CIF Division V quarterback honors in 2002 and 2003 and was selected the Heritage League’s offensive player of the year last fall.

Chizever, who will attend Colorado in the fall, hopes to walk on to the Buffaloes’ football team, either as a quarterback or a kicker.

A tennis pro at Viewpoint’s home court has offered to contact Colorado’s men’s tennis coach, but Chizever said he wasn’t interested -- though that would be his best shot at playing sports in college.

Still, Chizever has never taken the simplest path.

“Why stop someone from doing it, if that’s what he wants to do?” Azhar said.