TORRINGTON – Lyle Wiley has taken over the reigns of the Torrington Trailblazer tennis team after Mary Perkins stepped down after 18 years at the helm.
“Being a high school student and playing tennis, my dream was kind of always to be an English teacher and a tennis coach,” Wiley said. “I’m really excited because in a lot of ways I’m realizing my dream. I get to be a coach of an awesome program and I get to continue a program that Mary Perkins has done an incredible job with.”
Wiley has been an assistant coach under Perkins for the past three seasons and is now taking control.
“Mary and I have similar personalities so I think in a lot of ways, it’ll be a nice transition,” Wiley said. “I’m not like a completely different style of coach than Mary so I think that’s a positive. In a lot of ways, we have the same coaching philosophy. We’re about making kids better and improving.”
Before becoming an assistant coach for the Blazers, Wiley has been around tennis for several years. He played for Rawlins in high school, where he was all-conference in No. 1 doubles. After high school, he taught tennis lessons for four years.
Although there was a realignment among the coaches, the four from last year’s coaching staff return this year. In 2016, Wiley and Curtis Berkley were part-time assistant coaches, with Perkins running the program and John Kelly as the full-time assistant coach. Heading into the 2017 season, Wiley is the head coach, with Berkley stepping up for the full-time assistant coaching position. Perkins and Kelly remain on the staff as the two part-time assistant coaches.
As a coach for Torrington the last three years, Wiley knows the Blazers that are returning to the program. Torrington lost Tyler Ring, a 2016 all-state honoree, Chase Berguson, Emily Zavorka, Abbi Mitchell and Sydney Hill from last year’s roster due to graduation. Other than the five seniors, Wiley expects last year’s roster to return to action this year with the addition of some current eighth-graders.
“I know pretty well all the students that I’m getting back and what their strengths and weaknesses are,” Wiley said. “We make kind of individual plans for all of them, like you need to work on your serve.”
Wiley said that his players need to work on their plans throughout the summer. He is working on setting up times throughout the summer to set up leagues or workouts.
“The work actually happens before the season starts,” Wiley said. “Tennis is not the kind of game you come into practice on Aug. 7 and you haven’t picked up a racquet. It’s not the kind of sport where you run and you keep in shape and then all of a sudden you just turn it on. You need to be hitting all summer – as much as you possibly can.”
