Friday, May 21, 2004

Davison completes strong freshman year on Panthers tennis team

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Derrick Davison has been playing tennis for a number of years. His father, Rick, started working at the Peachtree City Tennis Center in 1997 and Derrick was drawn to the sport.

Not only is Derrick a competitive player in the junior tennis circuit, but he was also the number one singles player for the Starr’s Mill boys tennis team this year, as a freshman. What makes that even more remarkable is the fact that last year Davison broke his leg playing basketball with some friends.

It was not an easy or particularly painless process getting back to the court after the injury. Davison wore a brace for several months and then underwent rehabilitation and physical therapy with trainer Vince Cobb who had experienced a similar injury himself. Davison was back on the court last September, four months before he was expected to be back. There were days where it was more sore than usual, and there were also a few tournaments that he had to leave early because he was still in pain, but he made it through the high school tennis season as one of the more dominant players in his region and classification. Before heading to the state quarterfinals, Davison had only lost one match all year.

In addition to the injury not allowing him to practice for half a year, when he did return to tournament play he had to start from scratch. His ranking among junior players in the south was 230 in September and he has worked to raise it to 51st. To make it to Kalamazoo, the most prestigious junior national tournament in August, Davison will have to raise his ranking to among the top 25 or 30 in the south.

He spends two to three weekends a month playing in tournaments and good finishes there will bring him closer to his goal. One of those tournaments will be the Peach State Junior Tennis Classic at the Peachtree City Tennis Center May 29-June 1.

Davison will be working on his serve and volley as he tries to make the Junior Nationals this summer. He feels that the high school season has been helpful in getting him match ready. More importantly, he has had a lot of fun this year. Thanks to the camaraderie of his teammates and the laid-back style of his coach and favorite teacher, Silas Brown.

Though the Panthers made the AAAAA final four last week and were eliminated by Chattahoochee, Starr’s Mill can look forward to another successful year on the courts for many years to come.