The Wild Things from the Nashville area dominated the 18-under advanced division of the Tennessee Junior Team Tennis Championships this weekend.
That could continue a few years.
According to team captain Thom Druffel, the Wild Things have only one player who has finished high school and one girl going into her senior year. Most of the boys are rising sophomores.
Kyle Burton will be a junior at Pearl-Cohn High School after finishing second in the Class A/AA state tournament last spring.
“We hope to keep the team together the next three or four years,” Druffel said.
The last time several of the Wild Things played team tennis together, they won the 14-under state championship and advanced to sectional competition. After going 4-0 in matches and beating runner-up Cedar Bluff Racquet Club Blue 144 to 129 in games won in the five-team division, the Wild Things will be returning to Mobile for the 2010 sectional team tournament Aug. 20-22.
In addition to residents of Nashville and satellite cities such as Hendersonville, the team has two players from Murfreesboro.
“This is my funnest tennis tournament. Usually tournaments are stressful,” said Jade Daniels, a petite recent Beech High School graduate going to play on scholarship at Prairie View A&M in Texas.
She’s a first-year member of the Wild Things.
The real key to their success, Druffel said, is coach Tim Caldwell, who works for Vanderbilt’s hospital but is a tennis teaching professional who on the side helps “about 10” junior players every year.
“Almost all of them get scholarships,” Druffel said. “He’s a great guy. Everybody loves him.”
Caldwell gave the credit to the players.
“In Nashville we really wanted to push and promote tennis,” he said, “and I suggested to two or three of the players I teach that team tennis would be a great opportunity – and the team concept is something they usually don’t get. They’re the ones who went out and recruited other players, and they came back and put it in my face: ‘Are you going to be our coach?’ I couldn’t say no. But I’ve had great support from the kids and the parents.
“They’ve really made me proud, on and off the court.”
As for the nickname the players selected, Caldwell said they “can be a little wild in terms of shot selection, but I think all of them are in honors in some form or another in school. They’re great kids.”
The state team event, held the last two years in Chattanooga, has become the biggest junior tournament in Tennessee, according to Jim Frederick, who heads the junior team program for the Greater Knoxville Tennis Association. The GKTA had about 1,200 boys and girls in team play this summer and likely will have 500 or so this fall, he said.
At least 17 GKTA teams representing the Knoxville Racquet Club, the Cedar Bluff Racquet Club and Beaver Brook are in this weekend’s tournament at the Champions Club, McCallie School and the Racquet Club.
The last team to lose to the Wild Things in the advanced 18s’ round robin, the Dressler Dynamos from Chattanooga, finished third behind Cedar Bluff Blue and got the age group’s team spirit award. Other winners were the Music City Slammers in 14s, Chattanooga Lightning in 12s, the Awesome T-Bones in 10s and the Knoxville Racquet Club in 8s.
Criteria included a creative team poster, matching colors or some pieces of attire, a team chant or cheer at Friday’s party aboard the Southern Belle and genuine team support exhibited during matches.