Brownwood’s Coach Sammie Courington was enshrined in the Texas Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame over the weekend, joining Uvalde’s Bobby Kramer and Tim Calhoun of DeRidder, Louisiana as inductees into the 2022 TTCA Hall of Fame Friday, December 9, at the TTCA Convention Banquet at Horseshoe Bay Resort.

Courington graduated from Abilene High School in 1972 where he played on tennis team. He was a four-year letterman at Hardin-Simmons University. During his collegiate career, he posted singles records of 15-8, 16-9, 15-4 and 12-10 for a career record of 58-31. In 1975, the team had 24 wins and played in the Division I National Championships. He was named the Hardin-Simmons University Tennis MVP in 1974-75. In addition, he was listed in Who’s Who among Americas College Athletes. In 2005, he was inducted into the Hardin-Simmons Univeristy Athletic Hall of Fame. He earned a Master of Education degree in Physical Education from Hardin-Simmons University in August of 1989.

Courington served as tennis pro at Holly Lake Ranch near Tyler in 1976-77 and completed his undergraduate degree from what was then Texas Eastern University (now the University of Texas at Tyler). He began his public school coaching career at Corpus Christi Ray from 1977-08. He coached at Brownwood High School and Middle School from 1980-2003 and at Round Rock Stony Point from 2003-05. He coached at Pflugerville Hendrickson from 2005-09. He then returned to Brownwood as an assistant tennis coach in 2011, and retired from Brownwood ISD.

Courington was honored by the TTCA as the 1992 Class 4A Coach of the Year and in 1994 as the Junior High Coach of the Year. He was named as “Who’s Who of America’s Teachers in 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2002. Courington’s resume includes 5 state championship, 12 state qualifiers, and 153 regional qualifiers. He coached Brownwood to the boys singles and boys doubles 1983 state championships Courington’s teams compiled 12 district titles and 16 regional appearances at Brownwood.

Courington also served as a volunteer coach at Howard Payne University.

As a player, Courington finished 2021 ranked No.1 in the nation in the 55 and older division of Men’s NTRP 40 Singles of the USTA.

During his years at Brownwood ISD, almost every Saturday morning that was not taken up with the Varsity, Junior Varsity, or 8th grade teams, he conducted non-elimination tournaments for the 7th grade beginners. Most of the year in Brownwood he hosted tournaments for small schools in the area.

At Pflugerville Hendrickson, he donated his conference period to start a middle school program with the feeder school next door, Kelly Lane. The players from that program went on to qualify Hendrickson from their very first team tennis regional tournament appearance in school history.

In 1988, Tennis magazine held a contest to find the “Biggest Tennis Nut” in North America, where he was recognized as one of 5 finalists.