SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – Earlier this month, the Ace Bandits – an 18U Junior Team Tennis squad composed of high school tennis players from the Middle Tennessee area, including one from Shelbyville Central – secured its highest finish ever in the 2026 JTT State Championships in Chattanooga. 

“Last year we lost by one game to get into the semifinals,” said Shelbyville Central Tennis Head Coach Allison Smith who has been involved in JTT since 2012, “This year we won by one to get into the finals which was pretty cool.”

The competition format is a little different than you standard high school team matchup. Typically teams carry three girls and three boys, although they are allowed four apiece. The matches between teams consist of one Girl’s single, one Boy’s single, one Girl’s doubles, one Boy’s doubles, and three mixed doubles. The mixed doubles play out as a 10-point tiebreaker. 

However, the difference between a high school match and JTT is the way JTT determines winners. The winner is chosen based on which team wins the most games, not matches. Even though you might lose the match, you can still win overall as a team. The competition takes the highest percentage of games won in each team matchup to determine a winner. The format just heightens the importance of each individual game.

In Chattanooga, the Bandits played five different squads over the course of the three days. 

“It’s a lot of tennis, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Smith, “You get to see teams from all over the state. I’ve been doing this JTT thing since 2012 and it’s really been a lot of fun. I’d love to get it back in Shelbyville.”

The seven players on Smith’s team came from six different schools: Jackson Huckaby, Lilly Smith, Gavin Wrather, Eva Ondurus, Andre Brunelle, Sarah Skelton, and Charlie Hurst. The six schools are Shelbyville Central, Friendship Christian, Siegel, Central Magnet, PCA, and Oakland. 

Allison Smith, who led the Golden Eagles to a Region 3-AA Runners-Up finish earlier this spring after a 16-0 start to the season, is the Head Coach of the Bandits as well. After a strong showing in Chattanooga that saw the Bandits finish second in the state among 25 entries, the Bandits were invited as one of three wild card teams to a 12-team, nine-state Section Invitational in Mobile, Alabama on Labor Day weekend. The prize for the winners of the event in Mobile? An invitation to Orlando, Florida to compete in the USTA Junior Team Tennis National Championships.

 “I’ve never made it this far in JTT,” Smith said, “In our area, of course you have the Murfreesboro schools with access to the indoor courts, we just need the kids here to get on the court, get involved with a summer league like this. I have kids from Shelbyville playing in our fall league, and I’m hoping they catch the bug and join our summer league. You see all kinds of levels of tennis because it’s strictly an age bracket, not a skill bracket.”

In Chattanooga, the Bandits defeated the CHFC Bulldogs, CHS Lions, CBRC Bears, and Last Mint Lineups before falling to the Covenant Health Sharks. 

“Getting to this point is really exciting to see these kids go to this level,” Smith said, “We’re hoping we get matched up with the team that beat us at state so we get another shot at them.”