This year, Denise Smith and Aaron Kephart accepted the positions of head and assistant coach respectively for the girls’ tennis team. Both coaches came in hoping to make their mark on the team.

While the season didn’t finish the way they had hoped, finishing the season with regionals the players experienced a lot of change, growth and development throughout their season. Junior Zoe Wendel saw a lot of change in the team’s everyday practice.

“Having a new coach, you have to get used to their coaching style [and] expectations,” Wendel said. “I would say [playing] higher competition it’s definitely a jump, and so it’s good to see where I need to get to. We didn’t really do anything that much technical stuff, more just motivational, that’s the big difference I noticed.”

Smith had a clear goal in mind with her players’ conditioning. Smith wanted to develop crucial techniques in hopes of sending as many players to state as possible.

“My current goal is to grow the program with year-round tennis players,” Smith said. “We have other sports that play year round. There are kids out there who want to play tennis as their main sport, and they play year-round. I want to get as many [of those students] to state as I can.”

Assistant coach Aaron Kephart made a massive impact on the team’s morale this season with all of the players. He also felt his impact on the team also had a very apparent impact on the season.

“My relationship with the team is great, I love the girls and the girls love me, You see their development from the beginning to the end,” Kehpart said.