By Caley Griebenow, features editor
During a morning workout, senior Steven Norton learned that there would be a change to the tennis coaching staff. The former varsity coach, alumni Tommy Kujawa, told his team that he found a new job and will be stepping down from his position.
This left Norton and the rest of the team wondering: Who would be the new coach?
Norton was very excited to learn that social science teacher Brad Rathe would be taking over as the varsity coach. This decision had to be made quickly, since Kujawa stepped down just a few weeks before March 1, the official start of the tennis season.
Rathe, who also coaches girls’ tennis and boys’ basketball, hadn’t considered coaching boys’ tennis before the spot opened up. As he steps into his new role, he anticipates having a strong role in the reputation of the program.
“[I’m looking forward to] having more control over the direction and overall image of the [tennis] program,” Rathe said. “That’s what’s exciting to me.”
Rathe played tennis his junior and senior years of high school, along with soccer and basketball. He plans to apply the qualities he learned while playing multiple sports to his coaching.
“People that know me know I’m a pretty competitive,” Rathe said. “I don’t want this to be all happy and butterflies. We’re going to competitive. We want to win our division and perform at a high level.”
Norton believes Rathe is a positive addition to the tennis program.
“He’s a knowledgeable, likeable guy,” Norton said.  “Everybody knows him, so hopefully he’ll start getting more people to play tennis, to make it more popular.”
According to Rathe, JV coach Tim Casper had gotten him up to speed on the skill levels of the players, and the players themselves have communicated drills and exercises they’ve done in the past to keep practices running smoothly.
Along with hopefully winning the MSL East and West division, Norton wishes to have a positive impact on Rathe.
“I hope we reward Rathe with a really good season as his first go-at-it, so he’ll want to keep doing it,” Norton said. “I just hope we have a lot of fun as a group.”