Salisbury AJ Jarrell, left, and Gray Davis.

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — There aren’t many dull moments for Salisbury rising junior tennis star Archibald Leroy Jarrell.

“AJ,” as he’s called, spent the early part of his summer vacation using his skilled hands to hammer nails instead of smacking winners on the court.

“I was on a mission trip to Mexico with my church group, down near Tijuana,” Jarrell said. “I got to help build some houses for folks that needed them. Not saying I was great at it, but I was a lot better at it than I was last year when it was all new to me. And we had some time for fun, as well. We had a chance to go surfing.”

Jarrell, known for his smile, his mustache and his trademark backwards ball cap, is 2-for-2 as far as Central Carolina Conference Player of the Year Awards and Rowan County Player of the year Awards. He was stout while playing for coach Roarke Burton as a freshman. Milton Griffith returned to guide the Hornets his sophomore year, and Jarrell was even tougher.

Jarrell hasn’t forgotten the hard lessons he learned when he was feeling invincible coming from Salisbury Academy to Salisbury High and promptly was humbled by a college recruit in his high school debut for the Hornets.

He didn’t have many letdowns as a sophomore. Jarrell was 17-3 at No. 1 singles and 14-2 at No. 1 doubles. He and doubles partner Gray Davis were conference champs, regional champs and state quarterfinalists.

“From a team perspective, it was a super season (20-2) for us,” Jarrell said. “We made the fourth round my freshman year, and we weren’t expected to do anywhere near as well this year, but we made it to the regional final. We had our 5 and 6 guys (Farah Hassan and Jashaun Epps) do more than anyone dreamed they could. and in the playoffs, we beat some really tough teams.”

Jarrell hopes a growth spurt is on the way, but it hasn’t happened yet. He’s still 5-foot-6, same as last year, but he’s confident that he developed into a more skilled player as a sophomore.

“My backhand was weak my freshman year, so improving that was a major goal, something I really worked at,” Jarrell said. “I also worked to improve my serve, but may never have the size to have that really big serve. Some of my teammates (the Davis brothers, Gray and Bryant) are 6 feet tall, and that’s a great advantage. They can really get on top of the ball.”

Jarrell has always had certain assets — his forehand, his competitiveness, his quickness, his ability to get balls that most high schoolers can’t even think about trying to get to. But Jarrell gets there, even when it doesn’t seen possible.

Jarrell and Gray Davis are such a strong doubles team because Davis excels at the net, while Jarrell moves around like a cat in the back.

The best matches of Jarrell’s sophomore season probably were his comebacks in the playoffs against Community School of Davidson in the second round and Lincoln Charter in the fourth round.

“I was playing very good guys,” Jarrell said. “I just hung in there until things started going my way.”

Jarrell’s plan for this summer is to keep improving with more lessons, more sweat and more tournaments.

But no more trips out of the country.

Salisbury will be playing in the 4A/5A South Piedmont Conference next school year. What that means in boys tennis is a lot more fun matches during the regular season against schools such as East Rowan, Carson, West Rowan and South Rowan.

 

All-Rowan County:

• Salisbury — AJ Jarrell, Gray Davis, Bryant Davis, Ben Lawson, Farah Hassan, Jashaun Epps

• Carson — Karson Sloop, Austin Atwell, Will Welch

• East — Blake Matthews, Will Kesler, Thomas Stokes

• West — Dylan Parrish, Max Brown

• South — Sawyer Basinger

Coach of the Year — Milton Griffith, Salisbury

Player of the Year — Jarrell, Salisbury