Successful season closes with a huge accomplishment for Thompson tennis team

A season that Thompson High boy’s tennis coach Brad Easley called “extremely fulfilling” ended with the memory of a tremendous accomplishment. The Warriors, who battled season long, captured the school’s first Shelby County Tournament championship.

“Our three seniors (Daniel McCammon, Asa Render and Emerson Price) went out the right way, two of which are going on the play collegiate tennis,” Easley said. “Winning the first Shelby County Tournament in school history is something they will remember for the rest of their lives and something their families should all be very proud of.”

The lasting memory takes place of the disappointment last season when the Warriors had five singles and doubles champions – out of nine divisions – but still ended up in second place in the Shelby County Tournament.

“We thought we had won, but it is based off a points system,” Easley said, who added it “was pretty disappointing for our guys.”

This time, though, there was no disappointing finish. Christopher Killingsworth (No. 3), Render (No. 4), Price (No. 5) and David Bell (No. 6) each won singles championships. The Warriors also won a pair of doubles titles. Price and Jaden Sims won the No. 2 doubles and Bell and Killingsworth won the No. 3 doubles.

“The final match came down to us and Indian Springs in No. 3 Doubles, and Christopher Killingsworth and David Bell played incredible and won,” Easley said.

The Thompson head coach also called Emerson’s triumph in singles play as “the most exciting match of the tournament.”

“It started raining on the last day, the only way for us to finish was to finish on clay courts and he won his match in the pouring down rain,” Easley said. “It is very difficult to play in those conditions and normally tennis matches are not. But, both players agreed to it and both fought an extremely hard match. We were all extremely proud of Emerson's drive to win for his team.”

Thompson’s season ended in the Sectional play but that didn’t take away from what was a tremendous effort.

“We had some really tough matches at Sectionals and our guys fought extremely hard against Spain Park, Oak Mountain, Mountain Brook, Hoover, Tuscaloosa County, and Vestavia,” Easley said. “We felt like we had a very successful season, and I couldn't be prouder of their hard work, dedication to the program and the willingness to work in ways they never had before. All year long, we broke it down on ‘Rise’ because we wanted to raise the expectations of our program. After our last match, we felt like we did just that, so we broke it down on ‘Rose’.”