Darlington made a repeat appearance in the boys tennis state championship Tuesday afternoon, but was unable to duplicate last season’s title-winning effort.
The Tigers lost 3-0 to Greater Atlanta Christian in the Classes 1A Division I-3A Private championship at Darlington. GAC
“I asked them: ‘did you give 100%?’” Darlington coach Betina Fuentes said. “They said yes, so I told them they should be proud. That’s all I can ask for.”
GAC opened Tuesday’s matches swiftly, with a 6-0, 6-0 second-line doubles match win from Freddy Dougah and Brady Gessner over Darlington’s Grady Ferguson and Andrew Parsa. It followed with a 6-3, 6-0 third-line singles win from Atlas Covey over Randy Kim. Second-line doubles player Jacob Eigbedion clinched the state title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over John Courtnay.
GAC also led in both the first-line singles (Harrison Kemp ahead of Murray Ellington) and first-line doubles (Santi Bisogno and Jack Gessner ahead of Davis Carney and Felipe Selle) matches before they were pulled.
“Our goal from the beginning was to go for a third straight championship,” GAC coach Brett Harte said. “We’ve got a good community of players. It’s just a pleasure to see them as they get to go through the high school program.”
Tuesday’s victory clinched GAC’s 10th boys tennis state title, all since 2001. Next season, it will look to complete a four-peat for the second time in program history; the Trojans won back-to-back-to-back-to-back titles from 2005-2008.
This article was written by Zeke Palermo and originally published in the Rome News-Tribune on May 21, 2025.
A Darlington student wears a shirt supporting the tennis team.
Photo by Steven Eckhoff, RNT
