I remember when Kilgore used to dominate at tournaments. when I was in 8th grade and even a sophomore Kilgore had some hoss players. What heppened to Kilgore's awesome program. Center played Kilgore earlier this year and the boys side didn't have players the same caliber as they used to. After Sawyer and umm Jesse Dean i think and one few other boys used to put up some good wins. I think the top 2 or 3 were in supers at one time.

Kilgore my 8th grade year was #10 in 4A, before New Braunfels and Richardson Pierce. What happened?


The Texas Tennis Coaches Association Poll

As of October 27, 2003

1. Dallas Highland Park HS
2. Oak Ridge HS
3. Wichita Falls Rider HS
4. Wichita Falls HS
5. McKinney North HS
6. San Antonio Alamo Heights HS
7. Texas HS
8. Killeen Harker Heights HS
9. Tulosa Midway HS
10. Kilgore HS
11. New Braunfels HS
12. Amarillo Palo Duro HS
13. Ennis HS
14. Uvalde HS
15. Corsicana HS
16. Andrews HS
17. Boerne HS
18. Pampa HS
19. Richardson JJ Pearce HS
20. Friendswood HS

The top 6 boys are coming back next year, five of them being sophomores this year. They are just young. Yeah, the program did slip this year...right into the 1st place spot in district, going undefeated. Hopefully we keep on a slipping.

I am not sure what year you are now, but I the height of Kilgore's sucess they were lead by their girls team Caynus & ????. They lost their coach of many years and I think the program slipped (hopefully temporarily).

The loss of McMillan was the strain on the program. He had been there for quite a few years and had worked hard to create that #10 program. He was, by far, one of the most savvy coaches around and he was extremely committed to helping his players. Cunyus/Gill, Deen, and Broussard were definitely some of his last highlights. As far as slipping into the number one spot, the district didn't seem especially competetive this year in the first place. I think most of the programs are rebuilding and there are a select few players who are on a higher level than everyone else. Number one in a mediocre district didn't help out too much at Regionals, huh? The current Kilgore team is fairly young and they all have so much potential. I think an an assistant coach would be helpful. Ideally, one who knows a thing or two about tennis and who can actually play properly. It's a shame to see these kids' passion and potential go to waste.

Are there club pros in Kilgore? The success of Texas High and Pleasant Grove are results the club pros. There is no way a high school coach in 2 hours a day individually teach 15 to 20 players. The better players supplement their school group practice with private lessons to work on their individual strokes.

The boys at Kilgore have tons of potential. I don't know there new coach, but there old one, McMillan was really good. I think that with a good assistant coach that Kilgore will stay top in there District easily in the next 3, 4, maybe five years. Possibly havin a shot at state qualifying.

There are no pro's in Kilgore, but one of the players goes to one in Longview. He is the only one that takes private lessons consistantly. Occasionally, some of the kids will go to a group lesson.

nm

Who all was in Kilgore's district this year?

Nacadogches and Jacksonville are the only good teams that have good players. Kilgore ended Nacs district win streak of over 10 years. But Nacs only good player is the superchamp David Ballanger. They have the Clardy twins, but there are not near as good as there older brothers. Jacksonville's team isnt any good this year. Robby was a really good player and on days Hanna could play tennis pretty good. When Center played Kilgore I didn't see any hot players that could rally the ball or solid all around players. They can get alot better though. Yes it was 8 all when we played and the lights went out and the last 3 matches Kilgore won the first sets in. But we spanked yall one the boys side. Am I righht?

Center's top 4 boys all won in singles and doubles. Center probably won 6 or 7 of the 9 boys matches that counted. I think Kilgore won from the 5 spot down, including the extra boys that were there. Kilgore's girls won pretty much everything, maybe losing 1 match. There was one boys doubles match that had a supertiebreaker go like 26-24, which was crazy. Center does have some good boys at the top. How many will yall graduate?

There will be 7 of our 10 guys graduate and 4 of 10 girls so next year centers team will be alot weaker more so on the boys side because the top six boys and the #8 boy are all seniors there might be one senior boy next year that is on jv as a junior this year. The other 3 boys on varsity are sophmores Dustin Windam our #7 even with his temper has come a long way this year and so has Tommy Beirman our #9 took the #6 from van to three sets losing in a tiebreak 7-9 and David Young our #10 who has started off a little slow this year but was getting better until he broke his foot. We should have a decent boys team by the time they are seniors because there are some promising 8th graders coming up this year

Well looks like Center's District run will come to a close. Since Philip Trey and Eve Center has done nothing but get better. Seems that Centers dominace in East Texas is coming to a close. I'm just glad these five years were awesome with first time state qualifiers and even state champs last year. Who knows, we might have a repeat on the boys side?

Jeez I had no idea you all were losing that many people...gosh that is going to stink.

Last year we lost Tyler, Arjun, Britini and Joanna. Those girls almost always pulled out doubles and most of the time singles. Tyler always won singles and they both won doubles. Our boys now pretty much sweep from 1 to 4, including doubles. Our no. 3 doubles team wins most of the time as well. With the top 5/6 being seniors we need to step it up next year.