McCallie and Baylor Celebrating 100th Anniversaries of Tennis

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From wooden racquets and white tennis balls to T2000 racquets of the 1970s to the high tech equipment and facilities of the new millennium, tennis players from Baylor and McCallie have won at an alarmingly high rate of success not just for a few decades but a century.

 

100 Years: Both schools are celebrating 100th anniversary seasons this spring and are ready to make a run at team titles in this weekend’s Chattanooga Rotary Tennis Championship (April 4-5).

 

While Baylor and GPS will battle for the Girls A division crown, Chattanooga Christian hopes to bring home the girls B title. On the boys side, Baylor and McCallie will face strong challenges from defending champion St. Xavier (Ky.) and Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville) in the A division and a veteran Hixson team looks to make some noise in the B division along with Signal Mountain.

 

2013 Rotary Champions: Baylor girls and St. Xavier (Ky.) boys are defending champs in the A division, while Knox. Catholic (boys) and Huntsville (girls) took home the top hardware in the B Division.

 

2014 Rotary Schedule:

Friday:  First Singles Start at 8:30 a.m. - The Boys and Girls A Division will be at Baylor, while the Girls B will be at GPS and Boys B at McCallie.

Team and Individual titles should be determined by late Saturday afternoon.

 

Chattanooga teams: GPS, McCallie, Baylor (boys and girls), Hixson (boys), Chattanooga Christian (girls), Signal Mountain (boys and girls).

 

Baylor History: The highlights include national team championships in the late 1960s along with numerous Mid-South and state titles.

 

Top players range from Lefty Bryan in the 20s, Alex Guerry Jr. in the 30s to ITA Collegiate Hall of fame trio Zan Guerry, Roscoe Tanner and Brian Gottfried in the 1960s, along with interscholastic national doubles champions in the 1970s including Pem Guerry-Wesley Cash and three-time doubles winner David Dick.

 

The Red Raiders under coach Park Lockrow put together a 103-match win streak in the 1980s, and the current Baylor girls team under coach Dustin Kane had won 46 in a row before losing to Ransom Everglades (Fla.), 5-4, in the DecoTurf finals last weekend.

Baylor players and coaches have done well on the national and world stage as current tennis director Ned Caswell is a three-time age division world champ and Cash has won three national age division grand slams (titles on all four surfaces) and a world doubles gold medal in 2013.

 

McCallie History: City, state and Mid-South team titles date back starting in the second varsity season in 1915 along with champion players ranging over seven decades (1940s-present), including Bob Caldwell and Vernon Kelly, Hugh O. Maclellan, Turner Howard, Andy Avram, Eric Voges, Andrew Rogers, Sawyer Voges and Wes Nelson.

 

The Blue Tornado dominated the previous decade with a four-peat at the state tournament (2006-09) and won its first Rotary team title in 1957.

 

contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net

Edited April 4, 2014 by bbb