Building A Winning Team: Impactful Tennis Coaches

PLAY. This photo is of Sailor Frith playing in one of the tennis matches. She’s doing all the different serving techniques she learned from her amazing coaches. Tennis coaches are wonderful and amazing to have by your side while learning new ways to play it. Photo courtesy of Piper Frith.

Tennis is a very popular sport, and because it is now springtime, the season has started and many people have different opinions about the tennis coaches at VHS. The tennis program was originally founded by Marcus Gautesen, who also founded the golf and swim club.  The teams have grown ever since and it has really taken off.

There are four amazing and inspiring coaches leading the VHS tennis team: Todd Zimberg (main coach), Richard Moore, and Jeanie and Arthur (Art). All of them do their part to help the tennis team grow and improve. There is even a certified athletic trainer, Shane Williams, who helps players if they are hurt or injured in some way. 

“I love playing with Art, because he helps me with my technique and I love rallying with him; it helps me improve my focus and reaction time,” said freshman Katherine Thompson.

Tennis coaches help and impact a person's tennis technique because they provide meaningful feedback. Making sure that everyone practices everyday to perfection is important, for everyone gets better with practice.

“Another thing about Art that I like is that he gets right to the point and is super honest and humble,” said Thompson. 

It’s always up to the coaches to be honest or else the players will never know what they are doing wrong and because of that, they won’t improve.

Everyone on the team has a pretty good relationship with their coaches. Having a good relationship with the coaches means that they can give players advice and players can take it better.

“I would say Art is my favorite coach, because he doesn’t talk a lot, he demonstrates what he wants me to do and learn. Sometimes the more that the coach does, the more you can watch what they do and repeat it helps with learning overall,” said senior Paloma Freda. 

The tennis season begins in  March, and then ends at the end of May/June (depending on if there are any games that they missed or need to make up the time). Practice is every single day of the week except for the weekends, from three to five. That gives everyone a lot of time to practice drills, vollying and rallying. 

“I also love to volley with , he likes to talk a lot about where the ball is supposed to go and that helps me a lot too,” said Freda.

 Vollying is a tennis drill that can mimic playing an actual match with either singles or doubles, but especially doubles. Vollying can improve communication between two players and help with the team bond.

“I like tennis because it’s a slower sport than I’m used to, but I think it’s really fun. Richard is my favorite coach because he’s super funny and makes a lot of jokes and is fun to be around. It’s super fun to play queen of the court because I like meeting and hanging out with the girls on the team,” said senior Mylie Limont.

Varsity and the JV team have come a long way to victory, the majority of the games are won and they deserve some recognition. 

Although it was a good season for the girls tennis team, the season is coming to a close as the end of the school year comes up. With the help of their amazing coaches, girls tennis was a major success this season.