JACKSONVILLE — There's nothing like the feeling when a plan comes together.

About six years ago, David Hanna, head tennis coach at Jacksonville High School, and about a dozen other high school tennis coaches from all across East Texas came up with an idea to prepare their  players for the fall season, which gets under way in early August, by staying sharp duo to playing many of the top juniors from the region.

So with that brainstorm, the East Texas Circuit Junior Tennis Tournament plan was hatched.

The tournament is held at a different location through East Texas each Saturday, with this past Saturday being Jacksonville's turn to welcome some of the area's top junior players to town.

“These tournaments are for kids going into the 7-12 grades, with singles and doubles being played,” Hanna said. “This is a great way for the kids to get out and get used to the heat and see where their game is.

“It's also a good tool for the coaches to watch their kids and see what they need to work on and it gives the coaches an opportunity to watch some of the competition.”

Hanna said overall, several of the Jacksonville players have put together favorable results this summer on the tour.

“We've had some kids to play in several tournament and they have been successful,” he said. “That's always encouraging.”

There were plenty of familiar names taking part in Saturday's event.

In girl's singles Carolina Landin played in the 7-9th-grade division, while Shyla Magan, Maria Landin, Carolina Hernandez and Lorena Mireles were among the 16 young ladies battling for the title in the upper division of girl's singles play.

Four Jacksonville boys went at it in the 7-9th grade division of boy's singles.

That group included, Timothy Jeffery, Austin Pierce, Austin Nelson and Brian DeLaRosa.

In boy's doubles (10-12th-grade) nine teams registered to play, including Smith & Alexander and Rodgers & Roper from Jacksonville.

Five units vied for the girl's doubles title in the upper bracket.

Two of those squads were made up of Tribe tennis players as Magan & Mireles and Landin & Hernandez saw action.

Three mixed doubles teams played in round robin fashion to earn bragging rights.

Matches took place at the JHS and JMS courts.

NOTE — Other towns having hosted the East Texas Circuit Junior Tennis Tournament this summer include, Kaufman, Forney, Van, Lindale, Kilgore and Spring Hill...Hanna said that fall practice will start on the first day of August for all Tribe tennis players and that the team will play in two matches prior to the start of classes... Results from the tournament will be included in an upcoming issue of the Daily Progress.