EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series counting down the area’s top 12 prep dynasties of the past 50 years.
Baylor School’s tennis program had already known state and national prominence in both boys’ and girls’ competition long before 2010, but that was when the Lady Red Raiders laid the foundation for their dominance.
That year, a quartet of eighth graders — Harper and Samantha Caswell, Maggie Crumbliss and McCall Morgan — helped their team finish as the state runner-up in TSSAA Division II-AA. Baylor cruised to state titles during the foursome’s last four seasons, then followed with another five championships in a row after their departure.
During that run of nine straight team titles, the Lady Red Raiders also won eight more state championships combined in singles and doubles — including consecutive individual crowns by Samantha Caswell (2012-13), who teamed with Morgan for a doubles title in 2014. The program also produced a three-time singles champion in Drew Hawkins (2015-17) and has finished as runner-up in the team category the past two seasons.
Staff photo / Baylor tennis players Drew Hawkins, right, and Samantha Caswell hug at the net as they greet one another with teammates McCall Morgan, left, and Maggie Crumbliss during the Spring Fling in May 2014 in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Caswell and Morgan beat schoolmates Crumbliss and Hawkins in the TSSAA Division II-AA doubles state final.“Those four girls changed everything for us,” said Ned Caswell, who has been Baylor’s director of tennis since 2008. “They had that mindset to be committed to be the best, and that attracted other great players to come in after them. Once you get it rolling, anybody else who joins the program has to adopt that same mindset or they don’t fit in.
“One of the results when you start winning a lot is that when you don’t win it all, it seems like a really horrible thing. We didn’t win it the last two years, so there was a lot of disappointment, and it doesn’t matter that we won nine in a row before that. It’s about what you’ve done lately.”
Baylor began playing tennis in 1914, and the boys’ program has won 14 team state titles, with the first in 1971, multiple titles in the 1980s and ’90s and the most recent in 2016. There have also been 12 team runner-up finishes.
The Red Raiders have won 16 doubles and 10 singles titles at state through the years. Back-to-back championships for Hunter Smith and Benjamin Taverne in 2018-19 were the most recent in doubles, while Bo Seal’s consecutive crowns in 2006-07 and Brandon Kali’s title in 2018 were the most recent in singles.
During one eight-year span beginning in 1982, the Red Raiders went 144-2 and won six state titles combined in team, singles and doubles competition.
The program produced both Roscoe Tanner — the 1977 Australian Open champion, he was the 1979 Wimbledon runner-up and was a two-time U.S. Open semifinalist (1974, ’79) — and Brian Gottfried, a French Open finalist in 1977 and a Wimbledon semifinalist in 1980 in singles; in doubles, he teamed with Raúl Ramirez to win the French Open twice (1975, ’77) and Wimbledon in 1979. Gottfried and Tanner both reached a top-five world ranking in singles during their professional careers.
Baylor’s Wes Cash and Pem Guerry were not only doubles state champions in 1975, they went on that year to also win a national title.
The girls’ program began in 1987 and won its first state title just six years later, with Brooke Cordell the Lady Red Raiders’ first singles state champ in 1999. In the program’s 35-year existence, the Lady Red Raiders own 27 state titles — either team, singles or doubles — and have been runners-up another nine times.
The program-altering foursome’s run of state titles was accompanied by three straight DecoTurf national championships and one runner-up finish.
“They came together as a group because they were attracted by the strength of the program,” Ned Caswell said. “But when they came, the mindset went from being happy to just reach the final four to becoming dominant and changing the whole perception of the program.
“We’ve had a 13-year stretch of reaching the finals, and when you have that type of long-term success, younger kids always recognize who’s winning and want to align themselves with that program. That makes it easier to attract more good players, which allows you to maintain that same level.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.
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