When the Warsaw tennis team hits the court for its first match this season, there will be some new faces.

On the sideline.

Mike Baber, who was an assistant at Huntington College last year, has taken the helm as head coach at Warsaw this season. Baber graduated from Huntington College in 1998 and stayed in the community last year to coach the men's and women's tennis teams. Last year, Huntington's men's team received an at-large bid to nationals after finishing the season 19-3, while the women finished 6-7 in a rebuilding year.

After coaching at the college level, Baber noticed differences in high school tennis.

"There is a difference in coaching college-age players and high school-age players," said Baber. "The maturity level is different, and the playing level is different. At the college level, the skills are more developed because the players have more experience."

Baber is looking forward to getting the season started with his young Tigers, but because he was hired in February, he did not have much time to work with his team in the preseason.

"My biggest challenge has been that I got the coaching position late in the season so we didn't get the preseason conditioning I would have liked," said Baber. "Fortunately many of the girls have worked at the club this winter so they were working on their own.

"The process of getting organized and getting set up quickly was probably my biggest challenge so far."

However, one challenge the new coach has not faced is lack of motivation.

"Everyone on the team is very competitive and wants to win," Baber said. "They have a willingness to learn and they want to get better."

With only two seniors, Kim Fluke and Ashley Cavert, graduating from last year's squad, the Tigers are looking to have a strong season with a young team.

"We have very good numbers this season," said Baber. "We have 11 freshmen, seven sophomores, three juniors and one senior.

"I think our weakness will be our lack of match experience. We are such a young team that I think it will show up more in the JV lineup than the varsity. Our JV team will be all sophomores and freshmen. To a certain extent, much of the team is still learning how to play in competitive situations. Strategy is huge."

But the Warsaw players have one advantage many school don't. They have access to a racquet club in town, so they are able to play tennis all winter.

"I am an assistant pro at the racquet club, and most of my girls played all winter. That means they have a bit of a head start over some of the other schools in the community. We have an advantage because many communities don't have a racquet club to start at."

Racquet club or not, the Warsaw team has set some lofty, but achievable, goals for this season.

"We'd like to match last year's 12-6 record and improve our standing in the conference," said Baber. "The team was fourth in the conference last year, and we'd like to finish a little better this season. We'd also like to repeat as sectional champions, and I think we have a good chance to do that. Individually, Kara (Kesler) and Liza (Weidenbenner) would love to get back to state again this year.

"I think those are very achievable goals."

However, Baber has some goals of his own for the team as well.

"I want to see continued growth through the season," said Baber. "We will experience some growing pains, some players will face more than others, but my goal is to have the team continue to grow and make strides as a whole."

"My personal goal is to see each girl give 100 percent. Win or lose, if the girls give it their all, I will be proud of them. I don't want them to settle for what they think is their best, I wan them to keep working and go beyond it."

Manchester Squires

Coach: Eric Christiansen (1st year as girl's coach, boy's coach 3 years)

1999 Record: 1-10

Key Losses: None

Key Returners: Carmen DeFusco, Katrina Runkel

Opening Date: April 11, Manchester at Carroll

Coach's Quote: "We are looking to have really strong doubles teams, and hopefully we can sneak in a singles win here and there. We want to improve last year's record. We'd like to break even or be above .500. Last year there were a lot of inexperienced girls who had never played varsity. They learned a lot last year, and now they will be ready for this season."

Wawasee Warriors

Coach: Phil Mishler (5th year)

1999 Record: 4-10

Key Losses: Shanda Bucher, Stephanie Shivers

Key Returners: Mandy Perzanowski, Laura Lundin

Opening Date: Today at Central Noble

Coach's Quote: "Obviously, we want to work on our record. We have a lot of young players, so we are really working on playing strategy in game situations. Now they know what to expect and what we need from them on the court, and we will set goals from there."

Tippecanoe Valley

Coach: Jack Shambaugh (3rd year)

1999 Record: 12-4

Key Losses: Tiffany Cunningham, Erin Drudge

Key Returners: Karissa Parker, Kyleigh Gast, Kris Sanders

Opening Date: April 12 Valley hosts Manchester

Coach's Quote: "We had a good year last year, 12-4 is a record for Valley, and basically we have everyone back. We made it to the sectional finals and got beat by Warsaw 3-2 last year. Obviously we'd like to be back in that position if we could. We were undefeated in the conference last year, and we'd like to try that agins this year, too."

Triton Trojans

Coach: Laura Lamaster (7th year)

1999 Record: 5-6

Key Losses: Joanna Blackmer, Kelli Hackett, Gwen Roberts, Reanna Dugard, Layne Schlosser, Jennifer Young

Key Returners: Jennifer Berger

Opening Date: April 10 Rochester at Triton

Coach's Quote: "We had six seniors graduate last year, and we will miss them. This year's team is made up mostly of freshmen and sophomores, and they are very excited about this season. They know this will be a rebuilding year, but they are expecting to have fun. This year will be tough, but next year we will be much stronger. We have a lot of girls with talent coming up, and the next few years will be exciting."

NorthWood Panthers

Coach: Kham Keota (2nd year)

1999 Record: 5-12

Key Losses: Stephanie Lundvill, Kristi Raymond, Anna Metz

Key Returners: Jessica Yoder, Amy Hughes, Jessica McCarthy, Jen Myers

Opening Date: April 11 NorthWood at Fairfield

Coach's Quote: "I think we're going to be right in the middle of the pack this year. We have a lot of younger players. Because we have so many freshmen and sophomores, we have a big team. There will be three freshmen playing varsity. We hope to do our best, and each year we try to improve our record."

Whitko Wildcats

Coach: Larry Schuh (1st year)

1999 Record: N/A

Key Losses: Trisha Peters, Staphanie Moore, Megan Santter

Key Returners: Aly Frantz, Lisa Manck, Staci Warner

Opening Date: April 10 Whitko at Southwood

Coach's Quote: "Right now we have a big, strong freshman showing. After losing all those seniors last year, I am not expecting to surpass last year's record which was around .500. We want to maintain the level of competition we showed last season."

Warsaw Tigers

Coach: Mike Baber (1st year)

1999 Record: 12-6

Key Losses: Kim Fluke

Key Returners: Kara Kesler, Liza Weidenbenner, Abby Simmons

Opening Date: April 11 Warsaw at Rochester [[In-content Ad]]