The Heights Athletic Department is excited to welcome Holly Etzkin as the new head coach of the girls’ tennis team.

Etzkin, who’s been an instructional specialist at Canterbury Elementary since 2006, also boasts an impressive tennis career. She was a member of Indiana University's dominant women’s tennis program, which won fourteen Big Ten Championships between 1980 and 2004. Coach Etzkin played #1 doubles and #1 and #2 singles during her college years, winning Big Ten Honors and advancing as far as the NCAA quarter-finals. And she even competed semi-professionally for a few years.

She is eager to share her vast experience with Heights athletes, and especially to “let them see all the doors that tennis could open for them.” Raised in what she describes as a lower-middle class, blue collar inner-ring suburb of Detroit, she never would have been able to go to college without tennis.

“It gave me my education,” she said, adding that she got to see so much of the country and the world thanks to the sport. “And that’s not outside of what these girls can hope to attain.”

She hopes to give her players a sense of team and pride and belonging as they master an activity that they can continue for the rest of their lives. Unlike football or baseball, that require some sort of team or league, tennis is truly a lifetime sport.

Coach Etzkin is starting with overall physical fitness, strength and conditioning in addition to covering tennis fundamentals. And just like in the classroom, she has a wide range of ability levels to address: teaching basic skills to players who’ve never held a racquet and ensuring that those with more experience stay engaged and keep improving.

“We’re definitely building,” she said of the program, noting that they’ll focus on individual and team growth this year, not just wins and losses.

“But we’re Heights. We can build something we’re proud of.”

If anyone still wants to try out for the girls’ tennis team, they should reach out to Coach Etzkin as soon as possible at h_etzkin@chuh.org. (Boys’ tennis, coached by Lauren Smith, is a spring sport.)