Apalachee Farms Honors Longtime Tennis Director

The tennis community at Apalachee Farms celebrated a milestone this past weekend honoring Mark Wylie for his 10 years as director of tennis. In addition to hosting a neighborhood tournament, the nine court tennis facility and clubhouse were officially named “The Mark Wylie Tennis Center.”

In the 10 years that Wylie has been the tennis professional at Apalachee Farms, the number of adult teams has grown from four to over 10. In addition, Wylie has helped maintain the facilities in impeccable shape, and ALTA and USTA teams alike continue to be impressed with the overall condition of the courts. 

However, Wylie’s proudest accomplishment has been the growth of his youth tennis program. In 2001, there were eight junior players in the program. This past summer, Wylie had over 50 juniors and has two additional professionals assisting him with the drills. Wylie has players from throughout the Dacula area and even students from as far away as Athens taking instruction. Wylie’s juniors continue to improve, as he has six players currently ranked in the top 20 in their respective age groups within the state of Georgia.  As well, he had one Georgia top 10 last year, as well as a top 50 junior in the southeast region. Eight of Wylie’s students have gone on to play competitive college tennis, with two currently playing division one at the Naval Academy.

Wylie, a 1996 graduate of San Diego State, is a single father of two children, Jake 15 and Jordan who is 20.  Jordan has been in Wylie’s Junior Program since day one and is currently the No. 2 singles player at Emory University.  Jordan was also 12th in the nation last year for division three college players.

The tennis players at Apalachee Farms are extremely proud to have someone as dedicated and fun to work with as Mark.  He is always a pleasure to hit with and they look forward to at least 10 more years of tennis growth and activities.