Megan Hertz wanted to jump in and play, and the fact that she couldn’t was irritating her.
The Winona State University women’s tennis coach stood from afar Saturday in the Warriors’ 4-5 loss to St. Mary’s, watching her players compete against opponents she knew she could defeat.
It wasn’t just an instance of a coach longing to be a collegiate player again in order to take advantage of a new perspective, experience gained and better knowledge of the game.
Hertz knew she would be victorious against her players’ opponents because she actually has defeated them in the past, in her glory days at WSU — a period that ended last year.
Less than a year after claiming Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference titles in both No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles for the third consecutive year, the 22-year-old Hertz has traded in a racket for a clipboard, taking over as coach of the team she helped lead to three straight conference titles entering this season.
“It’s really tough to coach and not be able to play, especially since some of the SMU girls are girls I played against; they’re just a year younger than me,” Hertz laughed. “Watching my players play them and knowing I have beaten them is irritating.
“It’s really hard. I just want to go out there and say, ‘OK, let me do this.’”
Hertz, who is currently finishing a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education, Health Education and Developmental Adaptive Physical Education at WSU, became the youngest head coach and the lone female head coach in the NSIC in late November.
Originally, WSU athletics director Larry Holstad hired Hertz to be an assistant under her previous coach, Niall Kader.
“I was talking to Niall about getting hired as an assistant coach, and he was like, ‘I kind of want you to take over the girls, so it’s going to be a lot more hours than you and Mr. Holstad originally talked about,’” Hertz said. “So I went into Holstad’s office to ask for a raise, and before I could even get my whole spiel out he was like, ‘I’m just going to stop you right there; Niall has resigned, and we want you to be the head coach.’”
The initial excitement of becoming the team’s sixth head coach in the past five years quickly gave way to nervousness and self-consciousness when Hertz fully realized that she’d be coaching some of her former teammates.
“I was thrilled, excited,” Hertz said. “But I was nervous because three of the members on the team are my old teammates, and I wasn’t sure how receptive they would be of me trying to build their skills and so forth.”
Having only the experience of coaching tennis at the Winona Middle School and in park and recreation leagues, Hertz got over the initial awkwardness of coaching former teammates and quickly gained their respect.
“I had things planned out, and I was really convincing myself that it wasn’t going to be awkward, but the first three days of practice were really hard,” Hertz said. “I felt like I was pushing them too hard, which I absolutely wasn’t, and that they’d get mad at me if practice was really hard.
“Finally, late in the first week, I just walked in and said, ‘All right, everything I’m doing to you guys, I only do to make you better. Some days you’re going to hate me, and other days you’re going to like me. Right now, I don’t know you. I’m starting over, and I’m going to act like I have a blindfold on today. Let’s go run.’”
But what do her players refer to Hertz as?
“I like having her as a coach because she understands what all of us are going through when we’re playing a match,” sophomore Mary Hesterman said. “Sometimes I like to throw out a sarcastic ‘Sounds good, Coach Hertz’ every once in a while when she gives us orders, but other than that, I still call her ‘Megan.’ She’s a good coach and a good friend — there’s not much more a teammate could ask for.”
Not everyone was so excited when Hertz took the job.
“I just got bombarded by every single coach in our conference calling and saying, ‘What? You’re the coach? You were just a player, how did this happen? What’s going on? Are we still on for our matches?’” Hertz recalled. “It was a ton of responsibility just thrown onto me. I was just figuring everything out. But I think all the coaches in the conference are really impressed and I think they respect me.”
Meeting new WSU tennis coaches is nothing new for the rest of the coaches in the NSIC. In fact, there’s been so many, Hertz can’t even remember the name of the coach who recruited her out of high school.
While she doesn’t want to let this opportunity go, Hertz admitted that there will be a seventh coach in six years at WSU after this season. She plans on student teaching in a different area after graduation, and she admitted as much to her first recruit — a high school player who visited last week.
It’s no different on the men’s tennis team, which is currently without a head coach.
Rick Bonner, a tennis pro in La Crosse, Wis., and director of his own tennis academy out of Winona at St. Teresa’s, volunteered to be the men’s practice coach this season. But his busy work schedule, among other things, will prevent him from travelling with the team.
WSU is currently searching for a permanent coach for both the men’s and women’s teams and does have volunteers available to accompany the men on road trips.
Helping out with the tennis program at WSU is nothing new to Bonner. He did the same for the women’s team a few years ago.
“It’s something I enjoy doing, for one, and I know this program needs help,” Bonner said. “I think that, on the road, the players need more of a manager. Once they get on the court, they know what they’re doing — they can play the matches. In junior tennis, which they all come out of, they can’t have a coach out there.”
Until a full-time coach is found, the women’s team is in good hands with Hertz. Sore hands, maybe, but still good.
“(Saturday), I was such a nervous wreck, not ever being on this side of it,” Hertz said. “I thought I rubbed a hole through my hands. Between clapping and rubbing my hands together — it’s a nervous habit.”