ALTON - Jesse Macias and the late Robert Logan shared a lot of things in common and two of the biggest commonalities were a love of tennis and coaching young tennis players to success.
Coach Macias has done an exceptional job of carrying on Logan's legacy. Logan died in 2016 at age 30 of a rare form of cancer. Macias has said before the annual tournament is a time where "we can celebrate his life with local teams and coaches. It is always a special day."
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This past Saturday, the Alton Redbirds held their fifth annual Robert Logan Invitational.
Alton’s long-time head coach and tournament/site director, Macias had some moving words about what it meant for the Redbirds to host such a special event.
"We feel fortunate to be able to play this tournament to honor Coach Logan," he said. "His family came out today to support the tournament and players, so we appreciate the time they spent with our players and the fans.
"It is important to keep his legacy alive, we were blessed to have great weather, sportsmanship, and competition today for Robert's tournament."
The event was played at multiple area sites- Alton High School, the courts at Gordon F. Moore Park, and Lewis and Clark Community College to make the tournament work.
"It takes a lot of help," Macias said. "We appreciate Jeff Faulkenberg helping us a run a site, Civic Memorial's coach running a site, and our athletic director helped my assistant coach Stephanie Kreider run a site. We can't run those sites by ourself so we appreciate those people helping out."
