2011 HERALD ALL-AREA TENNIS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Panthers’ Landis emerges as Southwest Georgia’s best

AMERICUS — Americus-Sumter tennis coach Carl Willis has been around the block a time or two, starting the program back in 1983.

But after all these years, he’s the first to admit he’s never had a player quite as special as Joel Landis.

Landis, only a sophomore, emerged as one of Southwest Georgia’s — heck, make that the entire state’s — best prep tennis players this season, going 17-0 and leading the Panthers (16-1) to their first region title in more than a decade.

“I’ve had some good ones — really some great ones — come through our program over the years,” Willis said. “But I’ve never had a kid put together a season like Joel had.”

And that is just one of the reasons why Landis is The Herald’s 2011 Player of the Year for boys tennis.

“It was a really enjoyable season, but mostly because we did so well as a team,” said Landis, who played No. 1 doubles as a freshman and only dropped one match last year with his partner before earning the No. 1 singles spot this year over teammate David Cowan, who finished the season 16-1. ‘The success of the team is most important to me (over personal accolades) because it’s no fun if you’re the only one winning.”

Willis lauded Landis not so much for being a vocal leader — remember, he’s only a sophomore and still kind of a newbie to the team — but rather as the Panthers’ biggest supporter when his teammates were on the court.

“He’d finish his match and always ask me before anything else, ‘How’s he doing, or she doing, or what’s our team score?’ ” Willis said. “He knew all year he was working on an unbeaten record, but that wasn’t as important to him as how we did as a team.”

How the Panthers and Lady Panthers did as teams was simply marvelous in 2011. Both the boys and girls won region titles, then reached the Elite 8 round of state. And it was there where Landis had a defining, gut-check moment in his young tennis career.

“I would say that match in the Elite 8 was the highlight of my season,” said Landis, who found himself down, 1-5, in the first set, only to rally and win that set, 7-6, and cruise in the second set to finish off a 17-0 individual season when the Panthers eventually lost to Howard. “I was thinking about the undefeated season, sure, but I wanted to get us a point more than anything.”

Landis only lost two sets all season en route to a masterful 2011, and says he’s already working hard this offseason in hopes of reaching new heights in 2012.

But he’s not just working hard on the tennis court — he actually just returned from Lancaster, Penn., this week after spending most of the summer working on his grandfather’s farm.

“That just speaks to his work ethic — he’s a great character kid,” said Willis, who pointed to the fact that before the season started, the team decided they were going to resurface the school’s tennis courts all on their own — and Landis was almost always the first to arrive and last to leave. “And in practice, he never wants to stop. He’s always asking me to teach him a new drill so he can keep developing his game. He’s special.”

Landis didn’t even start playing tennis seriously until his ninth grade year — giving up baseball and soccer to do so — and says he still can’t truly explain how he’s gotten so good, so fast.

“I really have to thank God for giving me the ability to be good at something, and tennis just happened to be it,” said Landis, who credits his progression to Willis, and his two part-time coaches, Stephen Pinnell and Paco Paredes. “I started playing five or six times a week and just dedicated myself. Going 17-0 was nice — it’s definitely tough to go undefeated — but I still have a lot of work to do.

“We have a lot of experience coming back next year on our team, and while 16-1 is a very good record, I think we can do better.”