Baylor seniors Drew Hawkins and Cooper Long have helped lead their respective Red Raider teams to state tennis titles and now want to help their future college teams win championships.
Wednesday night, Hawkins signed scholarship papers for the fall of 2017 to play for the Belmont women’s tennis team, while Long will stay in town and play for the UTC Mocs men’s program.
“I had visited a few other schools before going to Belmont Nashville) and just fell in love with the campus and could see myself as a Belmont student-athlete for four years,” said Hawkins who has career totals of 62-7 in singles and 45-9 in doubles and has won two TSSAA state singles championships.
“The Belmont coach offered me a scholarship when I was on campus and I almost started to cry I was so happy. Everything couldn’t have worked out any better for me,” stated Hawkins who has a 3.88 grade point average and is a member of the national honor society.”
For Long, he will be a third generation family member to attend UTC following his dad and grand father Angelo “Nubby” Napolitano who was a football All-American for the Mocs in 1968.
“I hit with some of the UTC players during the summer months and have played against some of them in junior tennis tournaments in past years so it was an easy choice to sign with with UTC,” said Long who is a Baylor co-captain this year and has a 3.68 grade point average.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net