Curtis Renz and Mikey Ploutz are the new head coach and assistant coach for the girls tennis team this year.

Before Ploutz and Renz started coaching, Mason Hickel had coached boys and girls tennis for three years.

This is Ploutz’s first season of coaching tennis at Hays High, Renz’s second. Renz’s first season to coach was boys tennis for the school year of 2017-18.

Both attended as students at Hays High, Renz graduated in 2015 and Ploutz graduated in 2016. Renz played two seasons of tennis while attending HHS. Ploutz played tennis all four years of his high school career.

Renz said that his greatest difficulty as a coach is his age.

“A 21-year-old as a head high school coach is fairly rare,” Renz said. “I’m encountered with scenarios that I’ve never been exposed to before. With that said, I make the best of everything I do in coaching.”

Renz is a senior at Fort Hays State University and is majoring in organizational leadership, and said this has been extremely helpful in the coaching field.

Before Ploutz started coaching tennis at Hays High, he was doing tennis instructing while he was going to college in Garden City.

Ploutz strives to one day be a teacher and believes that continuing to coach tennis will benefit him in the future.

Ploutz wants to stay coaching for as long as he can.

“I see that tennis coaches here always go in and out, so I’m willing to stay here,” Ploutz said.

Ploutz said coaching has gone quiet well for him so far.

“Coming up with drills is a little difficult, but besides that, I think everything else is going pretty smoothly,” Ploutz said. “It’s pretty fun being able to coach a sport that you love.”

Renz plans on coaching this year’s boys tennis team this year but is unsure how long he will be able to coach.

“It’ll depend on the opportunities that present themselves after I graduate,” Renz said, “If I am able to coach and hold a regular job on top of this, I may continue my coaching career.”

Both Renz and Ploutz said a main reason they started coaching tennis was because of their love for the sport.

“I primarily began coaching because of the rare opportunity that presented itself and how I could directly impact high school students in a meaningful way,” Renz says.

21mmcbride@usd489.com