Newspaper Page Text
The Champion, Thursday, May 14 - 20, 2015
SPORTS
Page 18A
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OF EjitLELLE
Towers No. 2 singles player Garrett Anderson received
a tennis scholarship from Johnson C. Smith University
after two years of competitive tennis.
Towers No. 3 singles player Tyrone Laury played in the state
playoffs.
RS HIGH SCI
TOOL. OF EXCELLED
Zachary Smith is the No. 1 singles players on the team.
Towers Tennis:
Confidence and determination
help turn program around
by Carla Parker
carla@dekalbchamp.com
Tennis was established at Towers
High School in 1995.
For 18 seasons, the boys’ ten
nis program never managed to put
together a winning season. That all
changed in 2013 when the Titans
went 6-3 under then-head coach
Kevin Owen-Robinson. The pro
gram continued to get better under
a new coach, Emanuel Lewis.
Lewis took over the program in
2014 and led the team to an 8-1 re
cord. This season, Lewis led Towers
to an 11-3 record and its first state
playoff appearance. Towers defeated
Westside-Augusta 3-0 in the first
round, but lost to Pierce County 4-0
in the second round.
Despite losing in the second
round, Lewis said it felt good to
coach Towers in its first-ever playoff
appearance.
“It’s bigger than just going to the
playoffs,” he said. “It lets the kids
know that they can do more than
just football, basketball and base
ball—the main sports. We can com
pete in tennis and golf.
“It also gave the kids exposure
on what’s going on outside of 1-285
and Wesley Chapel,” Lewis added.
“Once we reached the state playoffs,
we traveled all across the state. We
Towers boys’ tennis coach Emanuel Lewis
led Towers to its first playoff appearance.
went to Peachtree City, Augusta and
Pierce County. They got exposed to
a lot of things, a lot of tennis parks.
They met other athletes from all
walks of life—from private schools
to other schools [in] south and
north Georgia. So they got exposed
to a lot of tennis.”
When Lewis took over the pro
gram last season, tennis was not of
interest among most of the school
athletes.
“I had to introduce tennis; I had
to make it look fun,” Lewis said. “I
brought in a couple of colleagues
and friends I grew up with and
showed [the students] what tennis
was all about. I showed them differ
ent videos and made them become
more interested in it.”
Lewis said it was hard getting
athletes to come out and play ten
nis because it was new to them and
they were busy playing other sports.
He decided to “expose” them to the
sport.
“I took them to different local
parks [such as] Sugar Creek [Tennis
Center] to see what a tennis match
actually looks like,” he said. “We
watched a lot of videos on Serena
and Venus [Williams].”
Towers had one experienced
tennis player at the time: Zachary
Smith.
“He played some tennis at Sugar
Creek,” Lewis said. “He really helped
me train a lot of the other boys.”
Smith, a junior, is the No. 1
singles player on the team. Towers’
No. 2 singles player senior, Garrett
Anderson, played tennis in ninth
grade, but took two years off from
the sport.
“He hadn’t played since, so he
was basically a second-year player,”
Lewis said.
Anderson, Smith and Tyrone
Laury played in the state playoffs.
Lewis said when he became the
head coach, he wanted to build con
fidence and determination in the
players, and the belief that they can
compete with anyone in tennis.
“Dealing with inner city kids,
they’re thinking that tennis is con
sidered a ‘White sport,’ or ‘we can’t
do nothing with tennis,’ but not re
alizing that they’re just as athletic,”
Lewis said. “It’s all about determi
nation and sacrifice. Once you put
your [mind] to it and [are] focused,
you ought to be willing to do any
thing. Once they started believing in
themselves it was no stopping them.”
Tennis also has exposed the
players to college recruiters. Garrett
is currently being looked at by John
son C. Smith University.
It is not just Towers’ boys’ team
that is doing well, the girls team also
made the playoff this year.
“The girls are getting better too,”
Lewis said. “We made it deep in the
regional playoffs and a lot of my
girls were first-year players.
“Hopefully, we’ll continue to im
prove each year,” he added.