Aragon’s girls tennis team is looking forward to a new season with two new co-coaches: Dave Owdom and Susan Zangl-Lyons. They replace former head coach Linda Brown, who coached the team over the last two seasons and led the team to a third seed in the Peninsula Athletics League Bay Division with a 8-6 record last year.
On top of his ongoing 11 year tenure as the boys tennis coach, Owdom will rejoin the girls tennis team, which he led to two Central Coast Section appearances in his previous stint. “[The team] lost their top four singles players, but Aragon usually has pretty good depth. As coaches, we need to get them to play fairly good doubles because that’s going to be important to us,” says Owdom.
In comparison, Zangl-Lyons has had less experience coaching high school athletics, but has led numerous clinics and academies in the past. She says, “It’s good to win. People like to win, but that’s not really what a team is completely about.”
Junior player Katy Cooperstein says, “One of the biggest differences between this year and last year is that [Owdom] is more focused on us being very team-like. He really encourages us to support one another.”
Senior player Victoria King, who is entering her second season, agrees, saying, “I’ve noticed that the new coaches are putting in lots of effort to promote team spirit. [They] also try to get out on the courts to play with players who might need additional help or training. This year’s coaches try to teach us not only techniques on the actual gameplay, but also methods of staying mentally focused so that we won’t get distracted [from] our mistakes.”
In tandem, Owdom and Zangl-Lyons are working together to coach the current team of 30 girls. Zangl-Lyons says, “I’ve done group [training] before, and the [most] amount of people I had was 10, so this is a lot. But of course, [Owdom] is here, and he is louder than [I am]. It’s good perspective to have a man and a woman [coaching].”
Cooperstein adds, “[Owdom] is more outgoing and gives instruction, [while Zangl-Lyons] is more of the encouraging type.”
Overall, the coaches and players alike have strong expectations for this season. “I expect us to at least make CCS. Our freshmen and underclassmen are really strong this year,” says Cooperstein.
Freshman Diana Gong, a projected singles player, says, “I think some of us were a little bit rusty, just getting back from summer, but I think a lot of us of are playing a lot better now.”
The Dons will invite Palo Alto to their home court on Sept. 4 for their third match of the season.
