Like father, like son. At least that’s the way Andrew Greneker, a senior tennis player at Valdosta High School, has his future plotted. Greneker, who will play tennis at Georgia Southwestern University in Americus next year, plans to follow his father’s footsteps into the law profession. Greneker’s father, Sam, is an attorney in private practice in Valdosta. Greneker would like to add his name to the list of Greneker family attorneys. In fact, he would like to attend his father’s school of law. “Dad went to Mercer. That’s what I’m interested in. I’ll have an option to come back here and work with Dad. I’m not sure what I’ll do after graduation, though,” he says.
The top-ranked tennis player for the Wildcats, Greneker is also a fantastic student. He has done well in his years at Valdosta High and has carefully mapped what he would like to do in college and beyond. “I’ve never had to stress out over school. School has come fairly easy to me,” he says. Greneker will major in finance at Georgia Southwestern and then, hopefully, attend Mercer law school. So why law school? “I’ve always enjoyed arguing,” Greneker says. “And having my dad as a mentor is important to me.”
While Greneker has been planning for the future, he’s also turned himself into one of the region’s top tennis players. Interestingly, tennis almost didn’t happen for him. When Greneker was 11 years old, he wanted to play baseball. However, he got his physical too late to go out for the baseball team. He heard the tennis team needed another player. Greneker had never played before but since he didn’t have anything else to do, he decided to go out for the team. “I had never even picked up a racket,” he says. He made the team and then, playing doubles, won his first match. After that, he was hooked. Greneker started taking lessons and never looked back.
These days, Greneker relies on his power to wear down his opponents. He stays at the baseline and keeps opponents moving. He seldom goes to the net and isn’t much of a finesse player. He just sits back and pummels the ball. Greneker also has the ability to remain focused and believe he has a chance no matter what the score. Once while playing a high school match on Jekyll Island, Greneker lost the first set 6-2, and he was down 5-0 in the second set. He then went on a 13-game run and won the match. “That’s probably been my biggest moment,” he says.
As he transitions from high school to college, Greneker believes that his best tennis is ahead of him. “Every night, I pray that I will play to the best of my ability. I don’t think I’ve peaked yet and I know I have plenty of room to improve,” he says.
His freshman and sophomore years, Andrew Greneker and the Wildcats finished fourth in the region and went to the state tournament. Last year and this year, they finished outside of the top four. Greneker, however, was named to the All-Region team last year. As of press time, the All-Region teams hadn’t been released. Greneker, who during his career has never played any lower than number-two singles and has spent the last two years as VHS’s number-one singles player, only lost one region match this season.
Favorites:
• Tennis player: Roger Federer
• Last movie: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Place to travel: The Caribbean
• Pepsi or Coke: Coke
• Superpower: Move through objects
• Subject: Science
• Sport you wish you could play? Lacrosse
• Person to meet: John Mayer
Academic Athlete/South Georgia/June 2014
Andrew Greneker
Valdosta High School
Valdosta, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Valdosta High tennis star eyes future law career
