Sports

Stevens put Albany tennis on map

• Ranked in the Top 10 in the nation among juniors his entire high school career at DWS, Paul S. Stevens was one of the last big-time, small-town tennis stars.

Danny Aller

ALBANY - There have been some Albany Sports Hall of Fame inductees over the years whose accomplishments and accolades you could list in a simple paragraph or two.

Paul S. Stevens is not one of them.

Stevens, the former Deerfield-Windsor tennis star who spent much of his youth ranked in the Top 10 in the nation and won GISA state titles twice in five seasons for the Knights, will be one of five ex-local Southwest Georgia sports stars inducted into the Albany Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Monday as the organization celebrates it's 22nd year.

And for Stevens, 35, the moment will be more of a tribute to his late father than it is a tribute to him.

"My reaction on Monday? Probably a little emotional because I'll be thinking of my dad," Stevens said of Sam Stevens, who died in October 2007 with one important goal left before he passed: See his son inducted into the Albany Sports Hall of Fame. "To be recognized (like this in Albany) was something he's always wanted to see and he was the one who took the time to submit my résumé, so this would've been a special moment for him."

But watching Stevens get emotional Monday could be something new for those who knew him. Nicknamed "The Machine," during his high school and college tennis years - he later went on to star at Georgia Tech - Stevens rarely showed emotion during matches, methodically moving through each opponent liked a skilled surgeon. And it was that personality trait which made him so lethal on the court.

"I'm not known to be the most emotional person in the world - never too high, never too low - and I think that helped me when I played," said Stevens, who graduated from DWS in 1990. "I just went out, played my matches, stayed calmed and focused."

And more often than not, he won.

Even more impressive, were the accolades he picked up along the way.

• From 1982 until 1989, Stevens rose from a top-ranked 12-year-old to one of the more feared 18-year-old tennis stars in the country, holding the No. 1 singles ranking in Georgia three times.
• He was one of seven players in Georgia picked to represent the Junior Davis Cup team in 1985, '87 and '90.
• Selected as the Georgia Junior Male Player of the Year by the Georgia Tennis Association in 1988.
• Selected to play at the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1990 in Minneapolis, St. Paul, where he came in third and won a bronze medal, as well as the Sportsmanship Award.
• Selected as GTA Al Parker Scholar Athlete of the Year while a freshman at Georgia Tech in 1991 and again in 1995 as a senior.
• Won a total of seven junior tennis titles - on the state, national and regional level - from age 12 to 18.
• Won two individual state titles while playing for Deerfield-Windsor, as well as two team titles once the GISA began the team tournament his junior and senior years.
• Played Nos. 1-3 for Georgia Tech during his four-year career with the Yellow Jackets, helping the team reach the Sweet 16 once.
• Named Rookie of the Year in 1991 and MVP in 1991 and again in 1995.
• All-ACC in 1994.
• Served as captain of the Georgia Tech team from 1994-96 and finished No. 4 all-time for career wins in school history with 81, including two 20-winseasons.

In a word ... 'Wow.'

"The fond memories from (those days) start when I was growing up and learning tennis in a community like Albany where tennis was strong," said Stevens, whose talents were helped along by the fact that not only was he a top ranked junior player, but he had a fellow DWS teammate - Chip James - who was most times better than him.

"When you look at the rankings these days and see where a lot of the top players are from, it's big cities. So to have two guys like Chip and I who were both ranked in the Top 10 nationally from a small town like Albany was really pretty amazing. And we made each other better because of it."

Of course, those head-to-head matches with James were not always the most pleasant experiences, says Stevens, who admits he didn't beat James once for five years after they first met.

In addition, it didn't help matters that neither James or Stevens could stand each other.

"It got so bad that we couldn't even be on the same court together without one of our parents refereeing, but we knew we had to play each other," Stevens said. "As far as competition at that level, he and I were it. But because we had each other - even though we couldn't stand it sometimes - it made us both a lot better in the long run."

When Stevens and James both turned 15, Stevens finally got the monkey off his back.

"After five years of losing - and (Chip) making sure I knew about it every day of our lives - I finally beat him," said Stevens. "And it came in the state championship match our freshman year."

From there, says Stevens, the mental block he had developed against James was gone, and for the next three years, Stevens didn't just beat his rival - he beat him all the time.

"It wasn't until our senior year that he beat me again," said James. "And it was ironic, because it came in the state championship match again, only this time it wasn't at the beginning of our high school careers, it was at the end."

Watching Stevens' and James' amazing ride, meanwhile, was longtime DWS boys and girls tennis coach, Meredith Gruhl.

"While it was my job to keep them from killing each other, they truly respected each other's game," Gruhl said. "But to this day, I would say they were two of the highest-profile athletes to ever come through our halls. I mean, two Top 10 players in the nations, both from Albany, both at Deerfield-Windsor - it was a coach's dream."

After graduation, James went on to Virginia, while Stevens signed with Georgia Tech, where he played No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles his freshman year, before playing Nos. 1, 2 & 3 singles his sophomore season. As a junior, he injured his wrist and redshirted, but returned a year later and emerged better than ever.

"It was weird, because I had somehow improved with a year off," said Stevens, who played No. 1 the next two seasons. "But when I came back, injuries (to my knee) slowed me down, and even though I had a great senior year, I was pretty much done with tennis after that."

And that's where Stevens' life stands today - devoid of the sport he once couldn't get enough of.

After earning his degree at Georgia Tech in industrial engineering, Stevens began working with a company in Atlanta that had corporate offices out in Salt Lake City, Utah. After two years, he was sent out to Utah for a  training exercise and simply fell in love with the region.

"I wasn't playing tennis anymore, but I found that I really enjoyed the outdoors activities offered out West, like biking, skiing and snowboarding," Stevens said. "I still play, but because I kind of reached my peak in tennis, these days, I look for new challenges, and with these new sports, I can always continue to improve. That's just the competitive side in me."

Stevens' mother, Carolyn, however, says she wishes her son was closer to home, but also understands that life takes us all to strange places sometimes.

"I would like to have him back in Georgia," she said. "But it's nice just to have him back home for the weekend celebrating something as special as this."

As for how Stevens reacted when he found out he was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, he says it was just like one of many tennis matches during his career: He took it all in stride.

"It was funny, actually, because my wife nor the people I work with really know about my tennis life or what I did," Stevens said. "So when I told her that we had to go back to Albany for this event, her reaction was kind of the same as everyone else's: 'Really? Hall of Fame? When did you play again?' "

Luckily for Stevens, Albany never forgot.

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