By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Nearly three decades ago, LaGrange High tennis coach Kenny Moore was looking for a spring-time tournament for his team.

Moore was having a difficult time finding one, so he decided to start a tournament of his own.

The tournament began with just a handful of teams, and Moore had to work to fill out the field.

From those humble beginnings, though, the Granger Invitational has turned into the state’s biggest high-school tournament, and it’s been a long time since Moore has had to worry about finding teams to participate.

Today, the 27th edition of the Granger Invitational will get started, and there will be 70 teams participating.

The two-day tournament will be held at six different locations in the area, and the teams will be separated into five different divisions.

Among the schools participating are LaGrange and Callaway, and the girls’ and boys’ teams will both be at McCluskey Tennis Center at 1 p.m. today for their opening matches.

On Thursday afternoon, as he and long-time assistant David Traylor put the finishing touches on the tournament preparation, Moore reminisced about those early days of the Granger Invitational.

“One of the tournaments that was around when we started, that we tried to get in, was the Tifton Rotary,” Moore said. There were just eight schools, and they didn’t have room for us. So the first two or three years, I’d call him and ask him what his date was, and we’d set our date away from his. After about three years, I felt like I’d really arrived because he called me to find out when ours was.”

LaGrange’s boys’ and girls’ teams will both be participating in division two, which features an eight-team bracket.

LaGrange’s girls’ team will open against Campbell, and the LaGrange boys’ team will face Campbell in its first match.

Callaway’s teams will be in division five, and they’ll open the tournament against LaGrange’s number two teams today.

Each team will play a second match later today.

The tournament concludes on Saturday with the championship matches in each of the divisions.

GRANGER INVITATIONAL

WHAT: Tennis tournament that features 36 girls teams, and 34 boys teams

WHEN: Today and Saturday

WHERE: Six different tennis facilities across the area, including McCluskey Tennis Center, LaGrange College and Callaway High

LOCAL PARTICIPANTS: LaGrange and Callaway