Marble Falls tennis ends season at state tourney

CAPTION: Marble Falls tennis plays Cooper (front row, left), Amaris Mitchell-Ochoa and Cooper Kelley had plenty of crowd support during the Class 4A state tournament May 7. Assistant athletic director John Berkman drove a bus of 35 high school students to San Antonio to cheer on the trio. Courtesy photo

For the third consecutive year, the Marble Falls High School tennis program finished the school year playing in the final tournament the University Interscholastic League allows – the Class 4A state tournament May 7.

That’s because senior Cooper Womack competed in the event in boys singles for the final time. Because he was a regional champion, he received a bye in the first round and faced defending state champion Aariz Rehman of Frisco Panther Creek and lost 2-6, 2-6. Rehman suffered an injury at the regional tournament and entered the state tournament as a regional runner-up. Rehman repeated as the state champion.

Head coach Samuel Whitley noted the draw “was just the way they did it this year.”

“(UIL officials) normally kind of shuffle around the regions – one plays two, three plays four,” he said. “And then the next year, one plays three and two plays four, and the next year one plays four and two plays three. It just happed to be the way it fell this year.”

Womack was sliding to get to a ball and his right ankle “just rolled over.”

“It was a little bit scary in the moment,” the athlete said. “I rolled on it, just put a lot of pressure and ended up hitting the ground, so I got a quick medical timeout. They wrapped it up, I wasn’t able to really fly. My movement wasn’t as good as it was before, I did feel like it was a little bit slower, but I was glad I was just able to keep playing and competing out there.”

He left the court without remorse, pointing out the points in each game were close and were long.

“As much as I really wanted to get the win, I’m still super happy with how I played,” he said. “I tried as many different game styles as I could, and I think that I pretty much threw everything I could at my opponent. Even when I got injured, I saw the fighting mentality, and I knew I never really wanted to quit or forfeit. So the way I was able to push myself and finish the match and keep it close throughout every game … made me super proud.”

The mixed doubles team of juniors Amaris Mitchell-Ochoa and Cooper Kelley made its state tournament debut and lost in the first round to Canyon High’s Hannah Terry and Cooper Richardson 1-6, 2-6. Terry and Richardson finished as the state runners-up.

“I’m pleased with them,” Whitley said. “They only played half the season together, and they did well together. The team that they played was just more consistent with their shots. They were more patient with their shots than what we were. We played and lost to a good team.”

Womack graduates with four district titles, two gold medals and a bronze medals all from regionals, and three trips to the state tournament.

“Cooper has over the past four years has upped the level of his game tremendously,” Whitley said. “He’s had no competition this spring at all. I think there were two matches that he played, one against Liberty Hill and I want to say Leander Glenn, that were competitive for him. In district, he swept everybody 6-0, 6-0. At regionals he pretty much did the same thing. There was no competition for him in our region. He upped his level of game that much.”

Womack pointed out some of the greats of Marble Falls High School tennis history, including Cory Horne, won the boys singles state title in 1991 like his older brother Monte, who won state titles in the 1980s.

“I think those people are on in a different place than I am in terms of their success,” Womack said. “They’ve been the (standard) and have been more successful. I think they were the original people to do so well, which means more. They’re the original standard. My hope was that I would be able to follow their example that they set with success and the way to play the game, and that was my intent was to do that as best as I could.”

The coach agreed.

“He’s definitely been a leader by example for our team for the last four years on work ethic and being focused and doing the things that you need to do in order to become a great high school tennis player,” he said.

While the Mustang may not have had the results on the court that he wanted, he and those in program say he represented the community in a tremendous way, arriving at the right time to put the program back on the Texas tennis map starting with his first district title in 2023. That caught the attention of his teammates and fans alike and gave them all a belief that if Womack could do it, they could, too.

That may be his greatest contribution to the program.

“I wasn’t able to achieve what I wanted to at state, what they have,” he said. “I still think that one of the most important things was playing the game right with integrity. I think that the people before me have set the standard of doing that, and I think I did a good job of following that.”

While the victories and the medals speak for themselves, Womack credits his classmates for the program’s success, noting that there was a time it didn’t have a junior varsity. Now it has quality athletes competing on both teams.

“Our class has definitely done a really good job of recruiting people out,” he said. “In the past year or two, we’ve gotten good athletes out, good friends out and some people have just wanted to come out and have fun. Some people have picked up the game. In a year or two, they’ve become really good players. I think that has especially helped our program. We’re going to start having tryouts, which I never even imagined for our team. So I think that’s been amazing to have a turnaround like that.”

CAPTION: Cooper Womack’s desire to represent the community the right way in how he played tennis and interacted with his coaches, teammates and opponents illustrates the best of the Marble Falls Independent School District community. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro