Apr 21, 2022
Pat Devoto has been labeled the “mother of USTA League” as she was the key pioneer to form the largest team tennis program in the world. A well-known novelist writing under the name of Pat Cunningham Devoto, Pat has taught tennis and reading in an Alabama prison and volunteered for decades promoting USTA tennis. She has won all of the USTA Southern highest honors. Georgia Gwinnett tennis coach Chase Hodges is by far the most successful in the NAIA. His men’s and women’s teams have won 13 national titles, named NAIA National Coach of the Year 13 times. Currently the men’s team is riding a 163-match winning streak, recognized as the longest streak in college sports history. We highlight Oxford, Miss. Junior Gordon Whitwell along with USTA Southern award winners Tony Cherone, of Memphis, Tenn. and Dusty Braddock of Florence, S.C.