Carnis Poindexter

Lucy Addison High, Roanoke

Carnis Poindexter grew up in northwest Roanoke and lived across from the Upper-Springwood Park tennis courts. In 1956, the year before he graduated from Lucy Addison High, he met Dr. E.D. Downing who was associated with the American Tennis Association’s (ATA) Junior Development Program founded by Dr. Robert W. Johnson. Dr. Downing encouraged him to play and suggested that he might get a college scholarship for tennis. In 1957 Poindexter entered Arkansas A.M. & N College (now the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff) on a tennis scholarship. In 1959 he won the ATA National Inter-Collegiate Singles Championship. In 1964, as an unseeded player, he won the Roanoke City Championship. This was the first year the tournament was integrated. He won the tournament three more times. He began his coaching career at Burley High in 1964 where he started their first tennis team. In 1965 he became tennis coach at Lucy Addison High where he won the 1967 VIA State Tennis Championship. Before retiring in 1994, he also coached at Jefferson Senior and Patrick Henry High Schools. Twenty five of his players were awarded athletic scholarships. In May 2018, Roanoke’s River’s Edge Sports Complex tennis facility was officially named the Carnis Poindexter Tennis Courts.