By Justin Feil, Packet Media Group
Katie Daly’s first heading coaching position keeps her at home.
The former Hillsborough High School tennis player is the new Raider girls head coach, replacing Larry Johnson, whom she played for until her graduation in 2004.
“Coming back and teaching and coaching was something I already wanted to do,” Daly said. “It’s really cool to see things from the coaching perspective as opposed to the player’s perspective.”
Daly (nee Merriam) was a four-year singles player for the Raiders, who reached the sectional finals in her senior season when she played second singles. She went on to play briefly for Lafayette College before focusing on her engineering studies.
“I still play for fun,” Daly said. “It’s been a couple years, but I’ve played in the Cryan Tournament. I’m not where I used to be.
“I will play in. It’s fun. It’s nice to coach being a former tennis player, both mentally and technically.”
In addition to teaching physics at the high school, Daly is enjoying having the chance to run the program at her alma mater.
“All coaches are personally invested, but I feel extra invested,” Daly said. “I want to uphold the Hillsborough legacy.”
She’d love to see the Raiders get back to a sectional finals level, but her first priority is maintaining the right sort of foundation first. It’s what made her high school experience so enjoyable, something she wants to give to her players.
“One of the things that really sticks out to me and this is something that Coach Johnson had instilled in me and all my teammates when we were younger was this idea of family,” Daly said. “We’re not just teammates, but we’re family. We’re there for each other.
“My husband is the head coach at Hunterdon Central. We maintain this connection. That’s something I want to instill in the girls. You’re teammates and we want to win, but we’re here for each other and we want to have fun and be supportive of each other.”
Daly’s Raiders lost to her husband’s Hunterdon Central team in the second match of the season to fall to 0-2. Will Daly is a fellow HHS graduate and a former Raiders assistant coach.
“It was 5-0,” said Katie Daly. “A lot of the individual matches were close. We’re looking forward to playing them again.”
Hillsborough has just one senior in the lineup, third-singles’ Elena Wei, but they do have five juniors within the six other spots. Kelly Jiang plays first singles, Nicole Kim plays second singles, Kelly McSpiritt plays first doubles with the lone sophomore in the lineup, Smruti Rajpara, and juniors Patricia Schenfeld and Suranjana Thakuria are at second doubles. It’s a group that is quite familiar with Daly.
“I was the JV coach the past two years,” she said. “It’s been great. Everyone has been incredibly supportive. I already know a lot of them from previous years.”
Daly has emphasized all-around conditioning to the Raiders. She has the team on the move every practice, and she hopes to introduce them to yoga in the near future.
“One thing I do with the girls, I’m focusing on more fitness,” Daly said. “I do have them running every day and me and my assistant do it every day with them. We let them know we’re there for them. One thing I want to work on instilling is a strong sense of confidence as a team so they’re really feeling confident out there and playing their game.
“Even the girls have kind of commented on it (helping them),” she added. “When we ran the first day, they were exhausted. The yoga is something we haven’t done yet. We have done some meditation and worked on the breathing and working that into the mental game.”
Daly has a mix of experience on her squad. The singles lineup fell together quickly, and the doubles candidates were more evenly matched but also came together quickly enough.
“Patricia and Suranjana were JV partners last year so we knew they worked well together,” Daly said. “It worked out well. They’ve worked together. Smruti is new the team, but already Kelly and her are working well together. Their playing styles and personalities mesh well.”
The Raiders have to start developing quickly. The Somerset County Tournament already comes up this weekend.
“I’d like to see where we’ve been the past couple years and possibly exceed it,” Daly said. “I think the past couple years we’ve had our kids making the quarterfinal and semifinals. As long as they go out there doing their best, I’ll be happy. I think that they can perform.”
The county and the conference are both full of challenging teams. Daly is plenty familiar with what faces the Raiders.
“It is a tough conference,” Daly said. “I think we’ll have some close matches, but I’m hopeful we’ll come out on top in those close matches. I’m hoping we do well, but if we lose we’ll learn from them and hopefully do well the next time we play them. It’s a competitive conference and my girls know that and can handle that.”
