News & Announcements
Season Preview: MS Tennis
In the wake of a championship run for both the boys and girls middle school tennis teams, the 2021 versions will look a lot different. Nearly all of the roster was eighth graders a year ago, meaning all have moved up to the high school level and will play in the spring.
The middle school program, which completed a sweep of the Southern Mountain League Championship in 2020, will be young and inexperienced, and features a new head coach in Anthony Cox.
The boys return just one player from last season in Rylee Smith, while the girls bring back Agnes Hogan, Olivia Phillips, and Keira Webb. Smith was the #8 boys player last season and will play at #1 singles in 2021. Phillips will play #3 singles for the girls, while Webb will play at #1 or #2.
“Both teams have won back-to-back Southern Mountain League championships,” says Cox. “It will be a tough task to continue that streak as the top seven boys and top four girls from last year's team all moved on to high school. None of our players have competitive singles experience in middle school tennis. We expect our lone returner on the boys team [Rylee Smith] to demonstrate leadership and be competitive at #1 singles, making a big leap from the #2 doubles team.”
Cox will also count on many newcomers to become leaders on the court.
“There are a couple of newcomers who have some valuable tennis experience at other schools, seventh graders Derek Lane and Jackson Cantrell. In addition, sixth grader Reilly Cox and several eighth graders who are new to tennis will be counted on to step up right away. Eighth grader Webb along with newcomer eighth grader Charlotte Stafford will look to have strong performances in the top two singles spots.”
Webb competed on a 14U tennis team this spring and summer that won the region league and advanced to the state tournament. That experience should be very valuable as the competition was at a very high level. Although Stafford has not competed in middle school tennis, she does have some competitive experience in a private league. Seventh graders Phillips and Hogan will also provide leadership rounding out the top five spots.
“For the boys, we expect the top seven or eight players to be pretty solid,” adds Cox. “In addition, from a program standpoint, we have several other young players we are helping to develop for the future. For the girls, our 1-3 singles should be very competitive as that is where most of our experience is.”
Along with a learning curve for many of the players, the team has also had to overcome other adversity leading up to the season-opening match.
“The first few weeks of practice have been really strong despite some brutal heat,” says Cox. “The student-athletes are listening to what the coaches say and trying to execute. Improvement has been clearly seen. Because we have so many newcomers, we are working on the basics while also getting them some ‘match’ experience in practices to get them ready for the real deal. Although the middle school tennis season is relatively short, we expect to see a lot of growth from all of our players. There is potential in this group, and we are excited to see how they perform once the pressure is on.”
The teams open the 2021 season on September 7 against Banks County on the road in a Southern Mountain League contest. The home-opener is scheduled for September 14 against Rabun Gap.