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Gilmer native having success as LeTourneau tennis coach


LONGVIEW — Three years ago, Gilmer native Doug Carter, 36, was brought in as a last-minute substitute to take over the LeTourneau University men’s and women’s tennis programs. Now, in his fourth season, he is a coaching veteran who has taken his last two women’s teams to the American Southwest Conference Playoffs and his last two men’s teams have finished with winning records.

Carter is a coach who has big dreams and is intent on reaching them. “Making the conference playoffs two straight years brings some legitimacy to the program,” said Carter in response to what the teams’ recent successes have meant. “My dream is to one day build a program that will be the ASC champion and compete on a national level year in and year out.”

To understand how far Carter has brought the YellowJacket tennis programs, one needs to only look at the past records of the men and women. Since the restart of the program when the athletic department moved from NAIA to NCAA Division III in 1998, the men went 7-38 and the women went 15-36 before Carter took over the reigns in the spring of 2005. In his first year as the head coach, Carter went through a trying time with a combined 0-23 record between his two teams. “Before I came in, LeTourneau had never really recruited any players and filled a team through cafeteria recruiting,” said Carter.

Despite the poor record, there were signs that things were changing. “It was difficult to convince kids that we were trying to win due to our previous lack of success,” said the coach, “but then I started to get some recruits.”

Former YellowJacket Hal Hawkins and current player Jessica Tindall were the first strong recruits for each program that Carter was able to land. Hawkins gave the men’s team their first solid #1 player and he earned Second Team all-ASC East Division honors while going 12-9 in singles play. With Hawkins leading the way and a few other solid recruits, the Jackets finished 6-14 in 2006 and Carter was named the ASC East Coach of the Year.

For Carter, getting Tindall was a recruiting coup since she came from a very strong East Texas program at Van. “The women’s program was a little further along than the men’s when I started,” said Carter. “They had some girls with experience, but just lacked some competitiveness. Tindall is a fighter and was able to bring that out in the others.” The women’s program had a similar rise in 2006 going 6-15 and even winning a few ASC matches. The big breakthrough for each program came during the 2007 season when each team made the ASC Playoffs. The men’s team had an excellent recruiting class that brought in four players who all earned all-conference honors en route to a school record setting 16-12 season; Paul Haney, Randy Namanny, Wade Sinard and Mark Taylor. The women also set a school record with 12 wins on the season.

The women’s program has picked up where it left off in 2008 going 9-10 in the regular season. In addition to Tindall, Carter was able to bring in three strong freshmen; Britney Cleveland, Caitlyn Hairell and Mary Lauren Bright; who appear to be ready to take the program to the next level. The 2008 season for the men has been filled with some great victories and some tough defeats. The team started the season at the ASC Individual Championships getting two individual titles and one doubles title. Unfortunately, the team was not able to keep up its level of play and just missed making the playoffs despite an overall winning record.

Carter is candid when asked about the growing pains of coaching the programs. “I’ve had to realize that what I did as a player is not necessarily what is done now. I’ve had to figure out how to teach both the mental and physical game. One of the toughest things for me is knowing that we are not going to win every time.”

Despite some setbacks, it is safe to say that Carter has both programs moving in the right direction. “I want to build a national contender year in and year out,” said Carter. “Trinity and Hardin-Simmons are two programs that have a heritage of winning and that is what I want for LeTourneau.”

Lofty aspirations for a program that did not win a match three years ago, but if the last couple of seasons are any indication of what will happen, it appears that Longview will be the home to some high quality national level tennis in the very near future.

gilmermirror@gmail.com