BATON ROUGE - A Baton Rouge tennis captain was given a national accolade from the United States Tennis Association. 

Wilbert "Doc" Whitfield was awarded USTA National Captain of the Year. He is the first-ever recipient. 

Whitfield was named the Southern Captain of the Year previously and was submitted for the national award. 

He has been a tennis captain for 14 years and led 87 teams. Whitfield has played on USTA league teams for 37 years.