The boys tennis team enters the season with a new coach and a lot of new players.

There are 36 team members, almost half of that number are new to the team this year,  also about half of the team are dorm residents, making tennis one or the most popular sports for IRC students at Cotter.  This influx of team members presents both an opportunity and challenge for a new coach.

Victor Mirasola takes over as the head tennis coach at Cotter after Blake Duden accepted an assistant coaching role at Saint Mary’s University.

Coach Mirasola comes from La Crosse Logan where he coached the girls tennis team. Mirasola is a LaCrosse native where he played at La Crosse Central and was Player of the Year in back to back seasons. He took his tennis career to the collegiate level where he played four years at UW-LaCrosse.

The Ramblers are fired up about this season. They return senior  Ceejay Schaffner, a strong player that will play the #1 singles.

“Right now the season is looking promising. We’ve shown incredible improvement since last year. We have three tough matches this weekend in Madison, and then head off to play Lourdes — our toughest rival.” Ceejay added.

A younger player that will turn heads this season is freshman Ryan Ortega who will likely slip into the #2 singles spot. Miguel Jauregui is the captains of the doubles lineup after returning from a knee injury.

Ddoubles lineup may be the strongest part of the team after returning six core members from last year’s team.

“Overall our team should do very well and expect them to be led by the singles players early in the season, but for the doubles to come on very strong by the end of the year,” said Coach Mirasola.