26th St

Mr. Bortner started coaching tennis in 2017 with no prior experience. His favorite part about coaching is building relationships with the players. His favorite tennis event is the city tournaments, which he wants to make popular again. His favorite memory from the boys' team is getting multiple state qualifiers, and from the girls' team is Jensen Christensen and Grace Hosher making it to the state championship. His favorite pro player is Roger Federer because of his charisma and sportsmanship. If he could meet one tennis coach, it would be Patrick. His advice for people wanting to get into tennis is to be patient, but also have urgency and to have fun. I'm Kaden Montgomery. And I'm Sydney Wanchell. Mr. Bordner here. Mr. Bordner, do you mind if we ask you some questions about tennis? Yeah, let's go for it. How many years have you coached tennis? So I started coaching tennis in the spring of 2017. I student taught the prior fall with Mr. Rindy here at the high school and then finished my student teaching, picked up a job in Orangeville, but Mr. Newcomer reached out to me and they were looking for a tennis coach. I had no tennis background, but they wanted to keep the program alive for another year. So he offered me the position. I took it and here we are still coaching. When did you get into tennis? Was it when you started coaching? Yes. Yeah, I actually went into coaching with zero tennis experience, which is pretty crazy now that I look back on it. And what is your favorite part about coaching tennis? Yeah, my favorite part is definitely the players. I think every year and every season just seeing like what that team's identity is going to look like and what they value. That's been super fun for me because I think every team I've had a blast with and then I especially love connecting with players, you know, after they graduate I like seeing players out and about at restaurants or cheese days or whatever. So it's super fun for me to like I guess just build the relationships with people and spend a lot of time with with people that are goal-oriented and motivated. Okay, and then what is your favorite tennis event that you've put on and why? Favorite tennis event, I think probably the city tournaments. The city tournaments are really important to me because they are a historical thing in our community. Tennis was a big deal in the 80s and 90s in Monroe and so kind of bringing back and trying to make the city tournament popular again was really important to me and we've had a couple of summers where the city tournament's been huge and a lot of fun and you get current players in it and players that come back that graduated and adults. So I think that'd probably be my favorite. What's your favorite tennis memory from the boys team? Yeah, the boy the boys team I would probably say last I would say last season getting multiple state qualifiers into the state tournament that was big for me. Another one that just stands out is our very first team win was at Stoughton and just the excitement. It had been years since the boys team had ever had a win and I still remember I mean it was a long time ago, but I remember the excitement the celebration. So I think both those stand out for the boys team. And what's your favorite memory from the girls team? Yeah, I mean it's so tough to nail one down. I mean this season was our best season in terms of wins so that stands out and then it's hard to it's hard to not say Jensen, Christensen, and Grace Hosher making it all the way to the state championship. That was back in 2019. They they just kept winning really close matches in the state tournament and it was like a little Cinderella run. No one really had them, you know as a double team that would make it to the state championship, but they did so it was just a blast. I had so much fun coaching them. Taking it away from high school tennis, who's your favorite pro tennis player? Favorite pro player? I would say currently Carlos Alcarez. Carlitos. All time though. I gotta go Roger Federer. I'm a huge Roger Federer fan. Why? Why Roger Federer? Yeah, Federer, I just like his charisma. I think the way he wins and loses too. I have a lot of respect for that. I mean, I grew up watching ESPN and I love sports. I never played tennis, but you would see Roger and you would see him win big matches and lose big matches and it was never like this big deal about it. Like he just kind of went about his business and you could tell I mean, he's just a great role model for so many tennis players. And was just like really even-keeled whether he win whether he's winning or losing. If you can meet one tennis coach, who would you meet? Patrick for sure. Patrick. I just was watching a Netflix series right now on coaching. And he, I don't want to give any spoilers, but he's a feature on one of the episodes. And it was really really cool. He broke down coaching Serena and and kind of the psychology behind coaching. So I think he would be up there. There's other coaches not tennis related that I would love to meet too. But he would stand out for me. And then lastly, what is your advice for people who want to get into tennis? Yeah, I think my advice would be to try it out and be patient with it. I think most people are generally not good at tennis when they start and so just being really patient with it and trying to be patient, but also have some urgency. Like if you're a competitive person and you want to get good at tennis, like you kind of need both. You need to be patient and understand it's a process, but then also if you're not paying attention to technique and like going out of your way to learn things quickly, then those things kind of clash with with each other. But that would probably be my advice. And to have fun. Like tennis is such a beautiful sport to compete with and you can play it for your whole life. So just kind of embrace that. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bortner. Thank you. Thanks for having me.