Cookeville tennis player Payne Davis concluded his high school tennis career last spring.
Davis and the Cavaliers saw success last season. Davis won most of his early matches against district opponents while Cookeville sent players to doubles and singles regional tournaments. Davis said while he never saw himself as one of the better players on the team, he put a lot of work in his senior year.
“I think I’ve improved just mentally too,” Davis said. “Cause there are times when, you know, you get in your head and you can’t find a way out but I think this year has really, I’ve improved a lot, taking deep breaths, finding my way through.”
Davis played doubles tennis alongside junior Landon Bruce. Davis said he also played singles from time to time. Davis said he saw a lot of improvement early on in one of Cookeville’s first tournaments.
“We played a lot better than we played prior,” Davis said. “I think from where we started we turned out to be a lot better.”
Davis said he always leans on the positives after every season.
“We’ve all gone through a lot, every person on the team,” Davis said. “So there’s a lot of positives, you know, everyone’s going to improve on something, but I think as a team we’ve really improved all together.”
Davis graduated from Cookeville High School last year. Davis said he is expected to be hired full time at an engineering firm in Cookeville. Davis said he tries to better himself regardless of what anyone expects out of him.
“He just happened to come when we had like ten guys that were all the same,” Cookeville Tennis Head Coach Brian Rohr said. “He still shows up the same every single day.”
