Players win state tennis titles
Augusta Christian tennis coach Mike Giddens (right), led students Joseph Tingen (from left), Chris Motes and Troy Freeman to state titles in SCISA this year.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
A year ago, Troy Freeman and Chris Motes squared off in the 2004 Georgia Independent Schools Association state tennis championship.
Though both were teammates at Augusta Christian for coach Mike Giddens, they played for the state title after maneuvering through the state tournament.
Motes got the best of Freeman, winning 6-0, 6-4 to take the state championship.
This year, both returned to the state tournament, but this time it was in the South Carolina Independent Schools Association, and this time both won state titles.
Freeman and Motes, along with senior Joseph Tingen, won state titles at the recent SCISA Open Tournament in Fripp Island, S.C.
Motes won his second consecutive state individual championship.
"Chris is a great player," Freeman said. "He is great to play against and is one of the best tennis players around."
Freeman teamed with Tingen to win the doubles championship even though the team had been together for just two tournaments.
"We switched everything around late in the season," Freeman said. "We knew that Chris was a good bet to win the state title, so instead of us just knocking each other out of the tournament, we switched things up."
Despite the relative inexperience of the Tingen-Freeman team, the boys breezed through the five matches at the state tournament.
"It wasn't very difficult," Freeman said. "We didn't even drop a game the whole tournament. We were nervous going in, though, because there are some great players in SCISA."
Freeman, Tingen and Motes also formed the backbone of the Lions team that won the Region 2-AAA title and went 14-2 in the regular season. ACS lost to Porter-Gaud in the state championship, 5-4, giving the Cyclones their ninth state title.
"It was close; it came down to the last match," Freeman said.
Despite being a junior, Freeman has exhausted his eligibility and will not return to the team next year. Freeman said Motes won't, either, instead opting to play on the golf team in 2006.
Motes could not be reached for comment.