At the University Interscholastic League state tennis championships in April, the National Federation of State High School Associations awarded Wimberley Texan head tennis coach Ken Gustafson the sectional boys tennis coach of the year for 2022.
Gustafson has many years of tennis coaching having served at Round Rock High School for three years after five years building a middle school program that fed into Round Rock. He accepted the Wimberley position following Lauren Huse’s departure two years ago.
In accepting the award, Gustafson was selfless, referring to the recognition as a “program award.”
“One of the big things are these coaches — Michael Coffman, Cade Paris, and Ramez Antoun — and their commitment to the kids and community. Coffman helps me talking about lineups, or walking through some strategy, or if I want to talk about the relationships some of these kids have, he’s gonna drop everything and go through it with me. These guys are invaluable to this program and to this team.”
For their part, the kids recognize Gustafson as a source of wisdom and calm.
“He’s an amazing coach. He does a really great job not just for tennis, but also for the things outside of the court,” shared John Moore. “It’s just nice to talk to him to game plan not like talking about strokes and how to play but more like your attitude going into the match, knowing what to expect and how to like, be happy with the result, no matter what, not to get too down on yourself. It’s really been great to have him as our coach here.”
Sarah Cook echoed Moore’s sentiments. “When we talk about playing certain teams, we definitely take it more to the mental side. We think about different formations and attacks we can use to win. That’s something I’ve never had from a coach before — he’s been really good about looking at like every single detail of a match rather than our ability to play.”
Gustafson was astonished by what he walked into with Wimberley. There is a long standing tradition of excellence for the program built on the shoulders of former coaches like Greg Howard, Greg Garrison and Lauren Huse, coaches that put things together.
“There’s also something special about these kids. I don’t remember exactly when — it couldn’t have been more than a week or two into this job — when I looked around and I told our coaches like ‘there’s something special about these Wimberley Texan kids you just don’t see anywhere else. You really don’t,” Gustafson said. “There’s something special about the way these kids fight. They don’t give up. They just they walk into places and they think that they’re the best — and they’re dang near always right. They’re such good competitors and I do feel lucky to be here.”
“It’s nothing tangible. There’s nothing I can put my finger on. There’s an IT factor at this high school and I think a lot of that credit has to go back to somewhere along the way, somewhere in that elementary school, somewhere in that junior high,” Gustafson continued. “There’s something that these coaches are doing with these kids early on to give them that attitude, confidence and that competitive spirit. Because it’s not just one or two kids. It’s all of them in academics, extracurriculars as well as athletics.”
Gwen Pierce reciprocated the feelings about her coach. “He’s been amazing. He and the rest of the coaches are extremely encouraging to us and they’re always there to provide everything we need. Anything from food to helping us talk about whatever we need to get out before a match. They’re great supporters.”
“He’s just been awesome, honestly, in every aspect and in coaching me and the team. He and our coaches know everyone so well and how to talk to them, how to get them out of their little ruts, to calm them down,” commented Ella Malone, continuing, “and he’s good to tell us to trust our game and training. Yeah, he’s just really great in that way.”
Gustafson was quick to spread appreciation to other factors that prop up the WISD tennis program. He shared the effect of having a community program like the Wimberley Community Tennis Association as well as an outstanding group of parents who work to make certain the students are recognized for their accomplishments. “My biggest part of this community is the school and the support that I get from the administration. What Mr. (Jason) Valentine did when he was principle was incredible and Mr. (Ryan)Wilkes has been nothing but amazing, commented Gustafson. “Coach Warren does such a great job looking out for us, making sure we’re taken care of and coaches Lacey Lambert and Stephanie Barthels are always doing a good job of making us feel welcome and included.”
Gustafson concluded, “If there’s anything that we should be known for it’s to constantly have these kids coming in and regardless of where they were when we got them, we want them leave our program better. That doesn’t happen if you don’t have kids that want to work really hard and want to put in the time and the sweat that it takes to get to that point. Like I said, these Wimberley kids aren’t scared to work. I think that’s really the stamp that we want to put on the program and the message that we want to send out to the community.”
Coach Gustafson concludes his second year with Wimberley High School this season. In his short tenure, the Texan tennis program won a state team tennis championship and qualified two individuals and multiple doubles or mixed doubles teams to the spring tennis state tournament.
