Libby High boys tennis coach named 'coach of the year' again
By ELKA WOOD
The Western News
Libby High School tennis coach Kyle Hannah, named coach of the year by the Montana Coaches Association for the second year in a row, would sooner praise others than himself.
“(Assistant coach) Terry (Oedewaldt) is an excellent coach,” Hannah said. “When you have an assistant coach that good, good things happen.”
Hannah also praised the talent and hard work that his all-seniors team put in over the season.
“I had some of the best kids in the school,” Hannah said. “They had a target on their back from winning state last year, they had to perform (at state level) and they did.”
Hannah was honored for his work with boys tennis, although he coaches the girls team as well.
“Coach Hannah is a beloved coach,” said one of Hannah’s senior boys last year, Jhamaal Sykes, who heads for college in Florida on Aug. 12. “I’m sure everyone on the team would agree. He’s amazing, and what’s most amazing about him is that we (the students) can talk to him about anything.”
The award is based on the boys team’s success at state last year. Awardees are chosen statewide from what Hannah said are known as “specialty sports,” which comprise of tennis, swimming and soccer.
“I’m not a huge awards guy,” Hannah said. “Tennis is an individual sport, but we turn it into a team sport.”
Hannah’s strengths as coach were many, Sykes said, but his specialty is teaching tennis as a headgame.
“He teaches us to get inside the mind of our opponant,” Sykes said. “He also helped me work on my top spin, he teaches with a lot of top spin.”
Sykes recalled sitting next to his coach after winning the state championships last year and asking Haannah why he didn’t appear excited.
“He turned to me and said ‘I am excited, I’m just trying to soak this in. This might never happen to Libby again,’” Sykes said.
Both Hannah and Sykes said that the likelihood of winning state again this year is low after losing so many seniors, but both were hopeful that hard work will pay off for the team this year.
Hannah, who also coaches boys and girls basketball, said the best thing about coaching is seeing students mature and grow up to be young men and young women, and also seeing how his own children, ages four and six, look up to the athletes.