Head tennis coach Regan Dodd can add one more achievement to her tennis career. The Baker Orange has named her coach of the year for the 2005-2006 school year.
Dodd was a very successful tennis player throughout her high school and college career.?She played No. 1 doubles and singles at Johnson County Community College before continuing at Northwest Missouri State. She qualified for the NCAA Division II Regionals in both her junior and senior years of college. Dodd took over the tennis program at Baker in 2002, meaning she just finished her fourth season this spring.
After having a successful season for both the men’s and women’s teams this year, Dodd said she was very excited to have received such an honor.
“It’s a fitting year because this year was my favorite year of coaching,” Dodd said. “I feel that my success was attributed to having such great players.”
Freshman tennis player Andrew Rowoldt said Dodd made it a lot easier for the freshman to make the transition into college.
“She’s a very positive coach,” Rowoldt said. “She always has a lot of energy and she kind of helped the freshmen out with everything from classes to tennis and helping us fit in with everyone on the tennis team. She’s usually very positive on and off the court.”
Dodd coached the women’s team to an undefeated season in the Heart of America Athletic Conference regular season play, and the men to a third place finish in HAAC play.
“My first recruiting class were juniors this year,” Dodd said. “The reason for such an enjoyable and successful season was because of their leadership, their motivation and their desire. I think I’ve learned as much from them as hopefully they’ve learned from me.”
Sophomore tennis player Melissa Shank said she enjoys how Dodd runs practice. She gives them an opportunity to work on things they feel they need to improve on.
“I like during practice when she lets us come up with different drills we feel we need to work on so that we feel like we’re working on what we need to for the next match,” she said.
Eidson said she likes the way Dodd allows the team captains to get the rest of the team motivated.
“I like that she puts the team into the hands of the players and captains and relies on us to motivate each other to work hard and to get things done,” Eidson said.
Dodd not only motivates her players, but she said they motivate her as well.
“When I’m having the worst day, one of the guys or girls will say something to make me laugh so hard,” Dodd said. “You know how they always say that when you’re on a team we’re really working towards a common goal??I feel like I get to live that.”