MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The story of Matthew Elias as a Baylor School tennis player reached its final page Wednesday.
It started four years ago with Elias fighting to make the varsity but having to settle for being part of the "B" team both seasons as an underclassman. He practiced with the varsity as a junior but still didn't play for the top squad.
That led him to consider quitting.
Baylor coach Philip Johnson kept encouraging Elias, telling him to stay with the program. When the team started conditioning this season, Johnson told the senior that "something special would happen."
"I told him I don't know what it is, but he's going to be involved in it and it's going to help us win state," Johnson said. "We kept talking about it and talking about it, and I told him the story is not over."
The story reached a winning conclusion Wednesday. Baylor (11-4) earned its first state championship in boys' tennis since 1997 with a 4-0 win over three-time defending champion Memphis University School, and Elias claimed one of the three singles victories to help make it possible.
Coupled with Baylor's 4-0 win over Hutchison in the Division II-AA girls' tennis final, Baylor swept the team state titles for the first time since 1996.
After receiving the trophy, while the Red Raiders was setting up for their team picture, Elias became overwhelmed with emotion and sat on the front row crying for a moment, with each day of hard work to just become a member of the varsity - let alone the starting lineup - coming to his mind.
He remembered what his coach told him, too.
"It's a dream come true," Elias said. "It was just like he predicted, and to actually do it means a lot. For this to be my senior year and to be able to make my way into the starting lineup to win a point for the team means more to me than anything.
"This coach, this team, we couldn't have done this without each other. We trust each other. That's why I think this is the greatest team that we've ever had here."
Brandon Kali, who finished the season 19-0, and Cooper Long claimed the other singles victories, with Long's 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 3 clinching the title.
Long and Ryan Toomey, and Kali and Ethan Palisoc had the two doubles wins for another team point.
"The guys believed in it," Johnson said. "They worked hard, trusted the conditioning and believed more than the other years, and we got it done."
The Red Raiders lose Elias and Patrick Toomey to graduation. The latter only spent two years with the program but said he's "enjoyed every minute he's been" at Baylor.
"This definitely is a special feeling," he added. "I couldn't ask for a better team to share this with.
"It's going to be one of my fondest memories for the rest of my life."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.