Monday morning and afternoon is about Ethan Richardson, Maverick Baker, Erika McKenzie and Khloe Akers as they are starting their day back on The Hill. At 10:00 am Miss McKenzie gets the festivities started.

One of the cool things about today is the fact that our Tennis 🎾 players will get to feel excitement around them while they are representing Carroll County High School.

They will get to play their sport on a College campus and because there will be eight Girls and eight Boys playing Singles, plus 16 doubles partners, there will be a minimum of 32 players present.

High School Tennis is a sport that holds a different level for all of the Regional teams. Some of the teams and players are perusing State Championships on their way to College Tennis while others are just enjoying their time on the court.

Today will center around six people for Carroll County High School.

On the Girls side, Head Coach Martin McKenzie, his daughter Erika and her doubles partner, Khloe Akers.

On the Boys side, Head Coach Christy Shupe, Ethan Richardson and his doubles partner, Maverick Baker.

The challenge today, from my perspective, is to capture the efforts of this group of folks and frame it in a manner that matches their time invested.

The brackets are seeded one through eight, with 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 competing in the opening round. Richardson, as a #3 seed in Singles is the only one of the four Cavaliers that would be considered a favorite to earn a victory today in the single elimination event.

  The first victory came in the fact that CCHS qualified in all four categories. Each player and team finished their regular season with a winning record and they faced some Schools that take Tennis pretty seriously.

  Today will be the final stop ✋for both of our #1 players as McKenzie and Richardson both just graduated 🎓. Martin McKenzie will be wrapping up his two year stint as the Girls coach at the end of the event. Shupe was gracious enough to step up and guide the Boys side this season and her future is unknown to me at this point.

Both Akers and Baker will be back at it next season, with bigger roles to play as the top player.

Back to today, the goal isn’t to get people to flock up to Hollins University and watch the matches. It’s to have people show appreciation for the efforts that these two Adults and four Students have put forth in the name of Carroll County High School Tennis.