All-Metro Boys Tennis Player of the Year: Hunter Carroll
by Tim Gayle Montgomery Advertiser Click here for link to original story
Age: 15
Height: 5-foot-7
Position: No. 1 singles, No. 1 doubles
Year: Freshman
• 15-7 singles record
• Played the last two seasons at No. 2 for the Eagles
• Class 1A-3A champion at No. 2 singles as a seventh-grader; reached semifinals of Class 1A-3A tournament as an eighth-grader at No. 2, and reached the finals this year at No. 1.
• Carroll is the fourth consecutive MA player to receive the award, joining Andrew Crum (2009-11), Thomas Gore (2007-08) and John Crawford Freeman (2004-06)
Expectations this year after moving up to No. 1:“It was a great honor. I looked up to (2011 All-Metro Player of the Year) Andrew Crum last year, for two years. He set the stage. I just took his place. It was an experience because every match is very hard. At No. 2, you often get some easy matches. But every team has at least one good player (at No. 1). I don’t recall a single easy match this year. They were all top-notch.”
Rivalry with Trinity’s Dow Birchfield and St. James’ Mason Blackwell:
“Dow was very good. He was always one of my main rivals. I was very intense about every match because it was going to be a good one. Mason, we’re pretty good friends. He beat me this year.”
Winning a state championship:
“Everybody assumes that we’re going to win it because we’ve won so many. Everybody takes it for granted (that we’re going to win) but we have to work for it. We feel a great obligation to win. My first year (in 2010), we lost by one point, and that was tough.”
Summer plans:
“I'm going to work hard and play a lot of tennis, so hopefully we can repeat what we’ve done the past two years. I’m going to play in a couple of out-of-state tournaments during the summer and a couple in this state. I want to make myself better, and the only way I can do that is to play tougher people.”
