North Montgomery boys’ tennis is now under the direction of Dane Baldwin.
In his first year as the Chargers’ coach — Baldwin is hoping to take good athletes and turn them into good tennis players.
“Myself and my dad (Steve Baldwin) are planning to give the guys all of the tennis knowledge that we can throughout the year,” Baldwin said. “There are a lot of very athletic players on the team and we are looking forward to getting all of their technique down that will stay with them for years to come.
“I think having better technique and knowledge of tennis will get them motivated to compete even harder than last year.”
Baldwin says his team has a lot of athletic ability, which he believes translates into tennis potential, they just lack experience with tennis.
North Montgomery returns senior Will McKinniss and juniors Hayden Turner and Brookes Walters — who will all be key players this season.
“We are really looking at Hayden Turner, Brookes Walters, and Will McKinniss to be leaders this year,” Baldwin said. “They are going to be a great asset to this team. The team only lost one senior from last year, so overall we are looking for everyone to play a key role.”
The Chargers will also look to freshman Beckett Martin to step up and fill a hole in the lineup.
Overall, Baldwin is excited about the opportunity to help revive the North Montgomery program.
“The goals for this season are to be competitive against the county schools (and conference) and to get the Charger tennis program back to where it used to be,” he said. “Expectations for this year are for us to never give up in a match and work hard to get better as a unit.”
