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March 29th, 2024

sergio borjas lhs girls tennisELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Some of the teams at Liberal High School will be seeing new faces in their coaching staffs this coming school year, and that includes the girls tennis team. 

Sergio Borjas was named to the position in late July, and he said he is excited to get things going. And as Borjas tells it, he is not a novice when it comes to athletics. 

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“Before getting into this, I worked for USD 480 in the tech department and did that for a year. After that, I worked at Foss Ford for three years, and then I took a local truck driving job,” Borjas said. “With coaching, I worked for a couple years as an assistant coach for the girls tennis team and I was also an assistant coach for the wrestling team. Being a teacher has always been something I've wanted to do, even when I was in high school, and I've always thought I would love to be a coach at some point too. When I saw the position was open, I thought it would be a great way to give back and start my career as a head coach. So I put in my application, and then Kerri [Miles] got in touch with me a little while later and said he wanted to talk to me about it. We had a great conversation in his office and he ultimately offered me the position.”

Borjas said his interest in coaching was sparked by his own experiences being involved in athletics. 

“I had many great coaches when I was growing up, and I remembered how much they inspired me and pushed me to success, and I knew I wanted to do the same thing. I also knew I wanted my coaching mentality to be a mentor for the students not just with athletics but with other areas of school as well,” Borjas said. “A lot of students don't always want to go to school, but they love the sport(s) they're involved in, so that's why they go. If you can motivate one student to do better with their sport(s), that impact can also ripple toward their schoolwork and other areas of their education. Even though I was a state champion wrestler, I was also a tennis player, which sounds kind of unusual, but that's how I was when I was in school. Tennis is a fun game, it's a lifelong game, and it's a game where you can call your friends on like a Sunday afternoon and do a pickup game at the local court. It's so easy to pick up and it's just a great game.”

And there has already been plenty of work to do to prepare for the upcoming season, Borjas said. 

“One of the big things we've already been doing is equipment checks, there's a tennis shed for all of that, and it was extremely unorganized, so we went through all of that and cleaned it up. We found uniform sets, so we'll be using those this coming season, including some throwback uniforms, and we'll be washing them up and giving those out,” Borjas said. “We also found a ball machine that was thought to be broken and unusable, but we went through it and found it just needed a cleaning and a new battery, so that's fired up and ready to go. Our season kicks off a mere 10 days after the first official day of practices, so we have 10 days to put a squad together and see where everyone ultimately fits, and we'll be working on a lot of stuff during those practices.”

Overall, Borjas said, he is excited to work with the girls throughout the season.

“One thing I'm excited about is getting on the court and getting to know the girls. I always say I was born in the wrong decade, I've always been partial to the more old-school 'play hard to win' philosophy and I want to see the girls play as hard as they can,” Borjas said. “I know more recently the attitude has been more along the lines of 'Let them just play and have fun,' but I want the girls to be disciplined and play the best they can. The season will see us facing a lot of WAC opponents, I know Garden City always has a pretty strong program, they've been the one to beat, and all the other WAC schools have pretty strong tennis teams too, so our competition should be pretty good throughout the full season. In the past, I've seen the team split into JV and varsity because they go to different tournaments, but something I want to focus on is making sure the girls get the scoring down right. A lot of times, the girls will earn two points in a row, but they'll forget to keep track of that in the course of the game, so I want to make sure everyone knows how to keep score accurately so everything is correct.”

Borjas added he hopes to see a lot of community support for the team. 

“Our first home meet is in September, and I'd love to see a bunch of people out there supporting the girls as they go through the season,” Borjas said. “They’re already working really hard, and I’d love to have the community see that.”