The McCallie tennis team enters the 2022 season ranked No. 1 in the latest Universal Tennis High School Boys National Team Rankings.
Harvard Westlake from Los Angeles and Saint Andrew’s in Boca Raton, Fla., round out the nation’s top three.
The Blue Tornado have won back-to-back Division II-AA State Championships in 2019 and 2021.
The TSSAA did not hold a state tournament in 2020.
Under the direction of Head Coach Jeff Clark, McCallie has a 32-1 dual match record since 2019. The squad returns all six singles starters from last spring’s 15-0 season and five of the six doubles starters.
Andreas Sillaste, a junior, was the Region singles champion and state semifinalist at the No. 1 singles position in 2021. He and teammate Colin Tuttle went undefeated at No. 1 doubles.
Senior Will Leathers and sophomore Gabe Getz won the state doubles title last spring and were undefeated in doubles matches. Leathers also played No. 2 singles. Tuttle, a senior, was undefeated in all dual matches at No. 3 and 4 singles last season. He was a Region singles finalist and advanced to the state singles quarterfinals.
Also returning are senior Charlie Griffin, junior Richy Jing and freshman Henry Imorde. All three were undefeated in both singles and doubles in 2021.
Overall, McCallie has captured 10 tennis state championships.
The season opens March 16 with a trip to Lambert High School in Suwanee, Georgia. McCallie is hosting the first-annual McCallie Tennis Shootout March 24-26, which includes 10th-ranked Sidwell Friends from Washington, D.C., and defending Georgia state champion Westminster School of Atlanta.