Yo, tennis freaks, be expecting lot of aces in this season’s matches. With a new head coach hitting the scene, the Rolla tennis team is foolproof!

     “I’ve played tennis for seventeen years, so I have a lot of experience and I’ve always wanted to get into the coaching part,” new head tennis coach, Cody Kennedy said.

     While he used to be an assistant soccer coach, being a head coach entails a greater level of duty.

     “Other than you’re still coaching the kids, it’s a lot more responsibility than the assistant coach job because you’re also doing all the paperwork and rescheduling matches from rain. You also have more say of who plays where. It allows you to help people the best you can and do the things you need to do where you wouldn’t always get to do that as an assistant coach,” Kennedy said.

     Even though Kennedy plans on bringing his own tactics and virtues to the game, he doesn’t intend on replacing the last coach.

     “I think the last person did a great job, but again, I’ve played for 17 year, so I have more technical skills. The last coach had good coaching strategies, but I bring more technical skills as far as understanding how to hit shots correctly. Combining the strategies they have and the skills I bring will make for a stronger team,” Kennedy said.

     Kennedy hopes to inspire a winning, warrior spirit.

     “I like to be really technical because that’s where you have fewer errors. I want the kids to be more aggressive and actually try to hit the correct shots all the time, versus just being safe. I expect [the team] to try new things. I’m obviously different from what they’re used to and some of them are learning that. I just expect them to try hard and do their best each day. I wouldn’t ask them to do anything I think would be incorrect, so if I’m doing my best to teach them they should come out and do their best,” Kennedy said.