DUBLIN — Jeff Atkinson remembers all too well what it was like when he took over the West Bladen girls tennis program nine seasons ago.
“It was a struggle,” he said on Monday. “We were competing against teams like Fairmont and Whiteville that had established programs and had been successful. We weren’t that good.”
The Lady Knights managed to finish 6-3 in his first season at the helm, but then slipped drastically — winning just one match in the second season and four in the third.
In the years since, Atkinson and a host of hard-working Lady Knights have turned the tables 180 degrees. Including the 2012 season, West Bladen has gone 57-17 overall and 30-10 in conference play.
“I got better at teaching the game,” Atkinson said. “Once I earned my U.S. Professional Tennis Association certification, I had a better idea of what I was doing as a coach.”
But he also credits the players who were coming through the program.
“I started getting some really hard workers, girls who wanted to learn and get better,” Atkinson said. He ticked off names like Lexi Storms, Hannah Dowless, Erica Tanner, Hayley Baxley and Alicia Avellaneda.
This season — one in which the Lady Knights have been perhaps the pre-eminent girls tennis program in the region — West Bladen was led by its most successful duo in its history, Alanna Ludlum and Amber Long. The two players rank No. 1 and No. 2 in school history with more than 100 combined singles and doubles victories.
“That’s pretty impressive,” Atkinson said of Ludlum and Long, who went a combined 31-0 during the regular season.
Atkinson’s 2016 team has also established a number of firsts for the girls tennis program — including its first undefeated season, going 16-0 overall; winning its first team conference title, going 8-0 in the Four County Conference; winning a singles (Conner Brisson) and doubles (Ludlum and Long) conference title in the same season; earning a berth in the Class 2-A state championships (Ludlum and Long in doubles); and winning a dual team playoff match.
“All of that is a testament to how hard the girls have worked to improve,” Atkinson said. “I don’t focus on wins as much as I do improvement. If I’m seeing improvement during the season, I’m pretty happy.”
All of that focus on improvement has brought the program a long way.
“I don’t think we got taken very seriously when I first started here,” Atkinson said. “But I think we’ve earned some respect from area teams now. They know we’ll be strong.
“But getting there and staying there are two different things,” he added.
One sign the Lady Knights might be “staying there” is the fact that, for the first time in its history, West Bladen fielded a jayvee team after 21 girls turned out in the summer to play tennis.
But Atkinson said there still remain some tough challenges.
“We’ve got to get the girls playing at an earlier age,” he said. “We play against teams where some of the girls have a racquet club or fitness center with courts to play at year-round.”
He added that there is one way he tried to combat the lack of those facilities, and one area where the school district might be able to help.
“I try to do a better job coaching game strategy and teach about recognizing strengths and weaknesses,” he said. “But what would really help is if we can get the middles schools to start a program. That would be a huge plus because, right now, most of the girls I get have never played the game before and don’t know the fundamentals or even how to keep score.”
Atkinson said the future still looks bright for the program. Though he will lose both Ludlum and Long, his Nos. 3-4-5-6 singles will all return.
“I’m losing some very talented players, but there are some good players coming back — including a couple of underclassmen,” he said. “Plus, we’ll be competing in a new conference.”
West Bladen will rejoin teams from Robeson and Columbus counties starting in the fall of 2017, and Atkinson said the lady Knights will see some better competition.
“South Columbus, St. Pauls and Whiteville will give us good matches,” he said. “And we’ll continue to play against some of the bigger schools like Lumberton and Purnell Swett when we can.”
Atkinson said a number of times this week that he “loves teaching the game, especially to younger players” — which may be another reason the West Bladen girls tennis program has blossomed into the perennial success it has.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached by calling 910-862-4163.
