July Captains of the Month

Meet our July Captains of the Month, Eric Walters & Levi Sumrall!

JTT Captain of the Month, Eric Walters in his own words:

I had just finished my first season as a high school tennis coach when I captained my first Junior Team Tennis team in 2004. I found JTT while seeking opportunities for my players to stay on the court year round. JTT is a wonderful way for young people to develop their game and meet other tennis players from different communities.

I married my wife, Lydia, around the time we were graduating from Southern Miss. Lydia and I moved from Hattiesburg to Laurel in 1995 for work. I was first a teacher and then a principal in Jones County until I retired in 2021. Lydia and I started playing USTA league tennis in the late 1990s. We still annually play in multiple leagues and play as partners in the mixed doubles league every summer. Our daughter, Sydney, started tennis lessons at age 5 and played tournaments and high school tennis. She played JTT for years and had a great experience; I captained many of those teams. Sydney now plays Club Tennis at Ole Miss where she will be a sophomore in the fall.

Our family moved to Madison in 2021 for Lydia’s job, and we love it here. We have met the majority of our friends in Madison through tennis. I still work as a school principal but in the private sector now. I missed coaching high school tennis after our move to Madison, so when Sydney was nearing graduation, I decided to look for an opportunity to coach again. I am the tennis coach at Discovery Christian School in Florence and really enjoy working with our players. In addition to captaining multiple adult teams each year, I captain two JTT teams in the summer league and four teams in the fall league.

My favorite player of all time is Andre Agassi, but I really like to root for the top Americans in today’s game. I love that our players are near the top of the rankings in men and women’s tennis.

Adult League Captain of the Month, Levi Sumrall

Levi Sumrall grew up in the Hattiesburg area. He studied and obtained a Bachelors in Accountancy from the University of Mississippi and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi. Currently he works as an Auditor for the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff.

Barbara Holcomb went to a Tennis Apprentice clinic and convinced Levi to start playing in the fall of 2021. From then on he started recruiting friends to join in playing the game.

For Levi tennis is the opportunity to compete and make new friends. He shares that it not only keeps him active, but also gives him the drive to always improve. He enjoys that whether he wins or loses he has gotten the chance to meet some great people from all over the south.

Levi captained 15 teams in 2024. In his five years of captaining, he has captained 44 total teams! He feels that his teams are full of great people who want to improve and be on the courts.

For Levi one of the most important things is to listen to his players. As a leader, he understands that he may miss something that someone else caught. “The most important thing at the end of the day is that you do what’s best for the team and not any individual player,” shares Levi.