Brookwood Tennis Squad Shocks State

After graduating six seniors off last year's quarterfinal team, the Brookwood Broncos and its contingent were in a rebuilding year. Or, at least one would think so with only Mark Guentert and Randy Phillips returning.

But the freshman players that made the team had other ideas. With a good draw in the finals brackets, Brookwood High won their first state title in 10 years. In fact, freshman Will George won all his matches and never finished any of them in time to score points for the team.

"These guys just know how to win," said Health Hinton, varsity boys coach.

Brookwood won 3-1 over Westlake to clinch the title, its first since 2001. Westlake played Northview in a four-hour classic in the semifinals, and the squad was totally drained coming into the championship.

For Brookwood's team, however, Coach Heath Hinton said, "We don't just rebuild we reload."

Brookwood's No. 1 singles senior Randy Phillips won by forfeit when Westlake's Zack Kennedy cramped after his four-hour match in the semifinals. The Northview player was so drained he left via ambulance. George wasn't the only young netter to win. The doubles pair of freshman Brandon Mills and David Brown easily won their matches.

No. 2 singles junior Mark Guentert was in a battle in a third set but all the other matches were over and Brookwood had clinched the title so Guentert gave the match in the third set. George rallied from a love-30 deficit to win his match and clinch the title.

Guentert added that coach Hinton was very calming for the team.

"He keeps you motivated and in fact he had a story to tell us about his soccer days and told us to remember this event for the rest of your lives," Guentert said. "He (Hinton) is a great guy."

"We showed them what we could do," added freshman Brandon Mills. "At Brookwood, for a freshman to shine is really big."

With Phillips as the only senior leaving this team, the chance of a repeat is great. "We could repeat, who knows," Guentert said.