Sam Findley | For the Daily Journal
One of the winningest programs in Indiana high school boys tennis history has a new head honcho.
And it’s off to one of its best starts in recent years.
Ivan Smith had run Center Grove tennis for nearly half a century. This year, Smith passed the torch to school police officer David Beasley, who had served under Smith for the past three years as an assistant coach.
“I came out of college and I didn’t really know much about coaching, just playing and being mentored under a guy like that has been huge,” Beasley said of Smith. “Being able to know what do we say to kids on changeovers? How do we motivate people, you know, how do we approach every match? Stuff like that is totally different from being a player and being a coach, so stuff like that’s been awesome to be under him.”
The contrast in the coaches is profound, Smith a 74-year-old who has never played a set of tennis and 25-year-old Beasley the all-time leader in singles victories at IUPUI.
The pairing has been a good one for the eighth-ranked Trojans, who improved to 13-1 on the year with a 3-2 victory at Whiteland on Tuesday.
“I think David’s youth helps a lot to bring the team’s motivation up,” said senior Evan Davis, who teamed with Daksh Patel for a 6-0, 6-4 win at No. 2 doubles. “Ivan, he’s still a great coach and everything. He has more tennis history, but David being a good tennis player, I’d say it helps bring up the spirit and a lot of things.”
Davis and the Trojans still get a taste of both coaching styles, with Smith remaining on the coaching staff as an assistant.
“Well, I’ve been saying for some time that I really wanted to do less,” Smith said. “I feel like I could still coach. I feel like I can put together a sentence. I feel like I can evaluate. I feel like I can give a thought. But I just wanted to do less, and I felt like we’d be a stronger coaching staff with him. I’m not exactly a person that emanates a lot of energy, and David’s kind of like the (Energizer) rabbit, plus he’s been a high-level player… I felt like he needed to kind of find his own path, and I just thought we’d be better this way.”
Tuesday’s match, which was decided by Garrett Wasson’s 6-3, 7-5 triumph over Whiteland’s Ty McCullars at second singles, has Center Grove out to its best start since Beasley arrived. It was a hard-earned triumph overall for the Trojans, more so since the team’s top two singles players, Loc Pham and Tyler Lane, sat out with injuries.
“Loc and Tyler have been sitting a lot,” Beasley noted, “and Max (Williams) and Evan (Davis) have sat out on some matches and Daksh (Patel) as well. We’ve had I think about 14 or 15 guys play varsity matches this year. And to be able to have a record like 13-1 is pretty incredible, and just a testament to their work throughout the summer and throughout the year.”
Williams and Russell Dean picked up the Trojans’ other point with a 6-1, 6-1 victory at first doubles. The Warriors got wins from Spencer Gillespie (6-1, 6-3) and Carson Baumann (6-3, 6-2) at first and third singles, respectively.
The record speaks for itself, but the Trojans have taken to their new coach.
“He’s a really good coach and we like to follow his lead,” Davis said.
