Prince George tennis phenom Kristian Kiland is often mistaken for his coach's son when he travels to tournaments.
It's a point of amusement for Kiland, but it gives his coach, and older brother, Jim Condon, a few age-related anxiety jitters.
"It's because he often has a scraggly, long beard that makes him look older," laughed Kiland about his sibling who turns 27 on April 1.
"It makes me feel old," said Condon.
It happened again last weekend when Kiland took part in the Kamloops Junior Indoor Tournament, which was a Tennis British Columbia ranking event, but Kiland's amusement at his older brother's discomfort was tempered by his excitement at being back on the court again.
"I felt I played really well considering I haven't been able to practice all winter, since we don't have indoor courts yet, and my opponents have been playing over the winter," said Kiland, who turns 17 on Friday.
Despite not being able to practice all winter Kiland made it to the semifinal, and consolation semifinal, in both singles and doubles, falling in a super tiebreaker - a 10-point set rather than seven points that's used if the first two sets are split - in each of his final matches.
"Every match I played down there was really, really close," said Kiland. "A bunch of the guys I played down there last season I was better than they were but over the winter they improved so now we're at an equal level until I can start practicing and get up back to my level."
He lost the consolation semifinal in the super tiebreaker 13-11 and also fell in the doubles consolation semi, along with his partner from Kamloops, Brian Pranjic, in another tight tiebreaker.
"My coach said if I had practiced they wouldn't have even been close," he said.
"He has beaten all of the opponents he faced last weekend before," said Condon. "He's fitter than any of them but his tennis skill is just lacking a little due to not playing."
The student at Kelly Road secondary school said he doesn't keep track of his junior ranking, mainly because he doesn't play enough events.
"I play a lot of adult tournaments so my junior ranking is lower than it probably should be," said Kiland. "My family goes to a lot of adult tournaments because they like to play as well."
He said playing against adults has its advantages.
"It's a really nice challenge to play somebody who is bigger and stronger and then when I go to play junior, it's like, well, they're good, but after playing adults it's a little bit easier," said Kiland.
From the court to the rink
The dual athlete also keeps in shape over the long cold winter on the ice.
"I do a lot of working out and I also play hockey over the winter," said Kiland. "It keeps me in good shape but I'm still rusty when I get back on the tennis courts."
After years of house-league hockey Kiland made the jump to club this past season, winning a division championship with the midget club Kiwanis Whalers, coached by Darren Watson.
"It took a while to get used to because in house all you worry about is just stick checking; you're not really too worried about getting just flattened or anything," said Kiland. "It took some getting used. I got hit pretty hard a lot of times. I even got concussed once during the season but it wasn't anything too serious."
Condon said playing hockey allows Kiland to keep his cardio conditioning up and gives him a lot of upper-body strength in addition to excellent eye-hand coordination. He said watching his little brother experience his first hit was amusing.
"It was pretty funny watching him get his first hit because he kind of got blind-sided and didn't know how to handle it," recalled Condon. "He went down like a pile of rocks. I actually recorded a video of it."
In the Whalers final playoff game, Kiland emerged the hero with three goals and two assists in an 8-4 victory. He already had posted his first two-goal game of the season when he was handed the opportunity to notch the hat trick.
"I was getting ready to start celebrating [the win]," said Kiland. "The puck flipped up in the air and one of the guys on the other team grabbed it with his hand in the crease so they called a penalty shot. I already had two goals so all my teammates told me I should take it.
"I faked and went backhand and it hit the back crossbar and flew back out of the net," he added. "The ref standing right there called it a goal but the other ref, standing further back, said no goal."
Initially the official call was "no goal" but 1.9 seconds later after the final horn blew, a group of fans in the stands showed the referees indisputable evidence from their cell phone cameras that the puck had indeed entered the net. The call was reversed and Kiland had his hat trick.
Kiland said he may tryout for the club, or rep team, next season, but the cost is fairly steep and if he had to make a choice he'd play house-league hockey so he could afford to play in more tennis tournaments.
He expects to enter about 15 tennis tournaments within two months this summer, including a couple of junior tournaments in Washington State, while taking another step in pursuit of his dream to attend a NCAA school to play tennis. On the May long weekend, Kiland will team up with his brother to play in the men's double open tournament in Kelowna - the duo won the 4.5 division in 2011.
"We're thinking about doing a recruitment video in the next few months and sending it away to colleges," said Kiland.
The brothers, along with mom Nancy, are scheduled to compete in the badminton tournament Saturday at the College of New Caledonia.
