Blue Devil tennis ace signs with Christian Brothers

Blue Devil tennis ace signs with Christian Brothers

Two-time state champ Carlson Bennage signs scholarship with Memphis college

WM School District Carlson Bennage put a cap on his historic high school tennis career Wednesday at the Academies of West Memphis Performing Arts Center.

The two-time boys singles state champion signed scholarship papers with Christian Brother University amid family, friends and school administrators.

“It’s a huge day and I’m incredibly excited that all the people showed up,” said the son of Mike and Jane Bennage.

The Blue Devil senior, who also plays on the school’s baseball team, went undefeated in match play his junior and senior seasons and in the four years he competed on the West Memphis tennis team he lost a total of five singles matches. CBU recruited Bennage hard early in the process, and he said that was the deciding factor in choosing the Bucs.

“I had some other schools that were interested in me, but CBU was involved hard early and I gave them a verbal commitment early,” said Bennage. “Plus, the fact that I get to play and continue my education.”

In the school’s history there haven been just two tennis players to win state singles championships. The other is Heather Knight, who was inducted into the West Memphis Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.

“It’s kind of hard for me to talk about it, but it looks like I made history here,” said Bennage. “It’s pretty awesome to represent this great community and school.”

Bennage, who will start at second base for the baseball Devils, said he will major in business and finance at CBU. He was surrounded by his tennis coaches, including Blue Devil coach Kevin Holt, his tennis and baseball teammates, his family and friends at the school.

“Carlson’s going to do fine at CBU,” said Holt.

“He’s got a good work ethic and he loves the game. I never once had to convince him to our early-morning practices in the summer.

Carlson wanted to play and he put in the time and effort.”

By Billy Woods