Signal Mountain tennis coach Jordan Willcut felt good about his boys' team's chances to make it to Murfreesboro this season.
He felt good about it after the addition of two players in the preseason. He felt even better about it after seeing how his team competed against Christian Academy of Knoxville in some matches at the prestigious Rotary tournament.
And now that the Eagles have accomplished getting there, they are ready for the next step at the state tournament.
Signal Mountain is one of eight area programs participating in today's state semifinals at the Old Fort Tennis Complex in Murfreesboro. The Eagles play Christ Presbyterian Academy in the A/AA semifinals at 2 p.m. EDT, the same time CAK faces Trinity Christian.
Both Baylor teams, Girls Preparatory School and McCallie are in the Division II-AA fields, and Chattanooga Christian's girls are in the A/AA semifinals with Soddy-Daisy's girls in the AAA final four.
Signal Mountain is a newbie in the state tournament and will be in Class A next year with the A/AA classification broken up. Willcut feels confident his team will make noise in 2018, but it has unfinished goals for this year.
Prior to the season, the Signal coach found out that Roger Trombley, who was homeschooled last year after previously playing for Baylor, would be eligible to play for the Eagles. Around that same time, Thomas Thelen, who went to McCallie but didn't participate in sports, also decided to enroll at Signal Mountain, so that gave the Eagles two new quality players.
Combined with No. 1 singles player Grant Williams and a strong core, Willcutt said the focus from day one was uncharted waters.
"Once we knew Thomas and Roger were good to play, we knew we had a really good shot," Willcutt said. "Whenever the Rotary came around and CAK was there, we got to see an upper-echelon team, and once I saw how we competed with them - to beat them at some spots - I knew this was an actual thing, that we know we can get to state.
"There's been a growing belief here and everyone is playing the best tennis they can, so we feel good."
The goal was to get to state. Now that the goal has been accomplished, Willcutt said Monday's practice was focused on concentrating on what the team has been preaching the entire season - doing whatever it takes to win.
"Our mindset is in the right place," he said. "We're not happy with settling for just making it to state. We want to go out and seize it, especially with this being our last year in the division. We want to really prove ourselves this year.
"At the beginning of the season, we knew what this team was capable of, so our mindset has been the key this year."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.