ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170006
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: ANGIE WATTS STAFF WRITER
Giles High School boy's tennis coach Greg Brown has worked out a nearly foolproof recipe for success:
Fill the team's top singles position with last year's Three Rivers District champion, then mix in a little brotherly love.
Make that, brotherly competition.
Russell Bowling and his younger brother, Evan, will fill the top two singles spots for the Spartans this year. Russell returns to the No.1 seed for his junior season and Evan, a freshman, will take over duties in the No.2 slot. The brothers are not scheduled to play together in doubles, but that doesn't rule out their teaming up for the Group A Region C playoffs at season's end.
"Every time I miss a shot it's all my fault, or at least he thinks it is," Evan jokes. "But we probably have a good shot at winning the state title in doubles if Coach puts us together."
Each has been playing tennis since the age of 6. Parents Dan and Mary Ann Bowling can take credit for that.
"My parents played a lot so I'd just go out and play with them," Russell said. "I used to play a lot of soccer too, but since tennis and soccer are both spring sports I eventually had to pick one."
Brown is glad tennis was the first choice. Russell Bowling captured the district singles title as a sophomore and went undefeated during the regular season. The only blemish on his record came in the regional semifinals, when he fell to Glenvar's Nick Varney, the eventual state champion.
"Playing Nick, and losing ... hopefully that experience will be one Russell uses to grow on," Brown said.
Evan Bowling was with the team as an eighth-grader and frequently challenged older players in practice. Brown said Bowling, who has taken tennis lessons for four years and has attended many tennis camps, is a veteran competitor.
"I wish I had more kids like them," Brown said. "They're good in school, make straight A's mostly, and never cause any trouble. They lead by example. They'll go out and whip your hiney and then just go sit down somewhere."
Brown said there was one match in particular last season that best illuminates the kind of game Bowling plays. Russell had just defeated Narrows' Jay Webb for the second time, accounting for Webb's only two losses of the year. As he walked off the court shaking his head in disgust, Webb was heard to mumble: "Playing tennis against Russell is like hitting the ball against a wall. It always comes back to you no matter what you do."
It's that tenacious play that makes the Bowling brothers an unbeatable combination for the Spartans.
"They play up at [Virginia] Tech two or three times a week," Brown said, "and they'll just pop open a can of tennis balls and go till one of them drops.
"But Evan's fairly content playing in the No.2 spot right now, which is important to our success. He knows his role on the team, so that's not something I have to worry about."
At least for now.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Russell (left) and Evan Bowling are theby CNBfirst and second seeded players, respectively, on the Giles High
School tennis team.