Battle inks

letter with Bobcats
By Mark Mitchell
Special to the Democrat

Graham Battle already has an impressive list of tennis accomplishments. Recently, he added one more —a tennis scholarship to Lees-McRae College. While he officially signed his national letter of intent in November, a press conference was held on Wednesday to celebrate the Watauga High School student’s scholarship offer.

“I'm very excited to play for Lees-McRae for a number of reasons,” the 18-year-old said. “The Lees-McRae coach, Paul Goode, was my freshman coach here at Watauga, and we have a good relationship and he is a good coach. I also know a lot of the players at Lees-McRae because we play against each other at junior tournaments. It's a good group, and I look forward to joining them.”

While Battle will indeed join the LMC team in the future, the Watauga senior said he still has many goals to accomplish during his senior season as a Pioneer.

“I'd like for me individually, and for the team as a whole, to win a conference and a state title,” Battle remarked. “I think we will be a pretty good squad this year.”

The press conference on Wednesday started with Watauga High School athletic director Lavell Hall reading a list of Battle's accomplishments. The following are a few items off of that list:

• Named to the Northwestern 4-A All Conference team in each of Battle's freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.
• A member of the Northwestern 4-A conference champion team in both sophomore and junior years.
• WHS team MVP as a sophomore and most improved player as a junior.
• MVP of the RJ Reynolds Preseason Tournament as a junior.
• Northwestern 4-A Conference Player of the Year as a junior.
• Undefeated in conference play at the No. 1 singles' spot and the conference singles' champion as a junior.
• Regional finalist and state qualifier as a junior.
• Currently ranked No. 15 in the Boys' 18-and-under division by the North Carolina Tennis Association.
• Winner of four USTA sanctioned tournaments in North Carolina in 2007.
• Represented the North Carolina Tennis Association in the Southern Closed Championships in Little Rock, Ark. in June.

Both Battle and his father, Tom Battle, were quick to offer their appreciation to tennis pro Scott Lefteris, who they said helped Graham invaluably.

“Through the years, Scott really is someone who helped Graham get to this point,” Tom Battle said. “He deserves a lot of credit.”

“He (Lefteris) was my first coach, and the one who really got me into the sport seriously,” Graham Battle said.

While Tom Battle offered praise to Lefteris, he reserved the greatest praise for his son.

“Graham really worked very hard to get to this point,” Tom Battlesaid . “He put in the hours on the practice court and I’m glad his efforts are being rewarded.”

As the press conference came to a close, Graham remarked about the areas of his game he feels he still needs to improve.

“I want to improve all aspects of my game,” he said, “but specifically, I need to work on hitting the big shots better and being more aggressive. I just want to step up my game so that I can compete with the next notch of players.”