Josh Barwin is the new Chambersburg girls tennis coach.
With a new coach, a new attitude and all of its top players back, the Chambersburg girls tennis team has high hopes for a successful season in 2018.
The Trojans open their season Monday on the road at Mechanicsburg at 4 p.m. and host Lower Dauphin on Wednesday at Norlo Park at 4.
Josh Barwin has taken over the program from Bill Wissinger, and is eager to put his own stamp on the team.
“We haven’t been very good the past few years and we’re aiming to change the culture,” Barwin said. “I’m seeing 100% effort every day from the girls and they’re excited to get started.”
Chambersburg was 3-12 a year ago.
Barwin was named the head coach in July. He has coached basketball under Shawn Shreffler for three years, and when he was in high school, he claimed a Mid Penn Conference doubles title in tennis.
Hope Sprecher
“I’ve always had a love for tennis, so when this opportunity came up, I had to take it,” Barwin said.
What he has found is that the Trojans need a lot of work on their skills.
“A lot of that is just practice,” he said. “We need to get better at all the little things, which means we have to do the technical things first.”
Chambersburg returns seven seniors and two juniors from last year’s team, and all of the first-match starters are seniors. Hope Sprecher has leapfrogged into the No. 1 singles position, followed by Madison Mellinger at No. 2 and Caroline Hance at No. 3.
Alexis Parra and Cally Papoutsis form the No. 1 doubles team, and Julianne Grove and Sarah Guare will play at No. 2. The district doubles team will be Mellinger and Sprecher.
Madison Mellinger
Barwin said, “The girls did play a lot over the summer, but it’s tough that we have only one week of practice before we start the matches.
“I am happy with their resilience. I didn’t expect this many girls to show up, but they all came back and they are excited to try to put Chambersburg tennis back on the map. Some of them have stuck together for four years now.”
Barwin knows there is plenty of work to do to get the program to where he wants it.
“We need to create feeder programs and do things like summer camps,” he said. “We need to get more kids involved so we can build from the ground up.”
He’s hoping that a successful season will be the first step in that building process.