Last set for Angola coach

After four decades, Tony Wright actually wonders what lasting impact he will leave on the tennis programs he started at Angola.

Wright, 66, has coached the Hornets boys program for 40 years (missing one season after a quadruple bypass surgery) and has been with the girls program for 36 years.

He will retire after the girls postseason, which begins today with the sectionals.

?In a way I wanted to tell everybody I was going to retire after I got done,? he said. ?My preference was to hang my hat on the post and just go.

?I have enjoyed it and hopefully I have left some things behind that will be good with the program.?

Wright started the boys program in 1971 when a group of students wanted to play high school tennis. Wright played the sport as a hobby and worked with the administration to begin a program.

Wright?s first team went 0-5. Wright has gone 382-249 with the boys and 234-227 with the girls since that first season. Wright?s overall record is 616-481 entering today.

Wright will have coached in more than 1,100 dual matches at Angola before he retires.

?I have trouble wrapping my mind around that many matches,? he said.

He has 18 sectional championships, a boys regional title and is a member of the Indiana Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame.

?It was a tough decision, but you have to begin to feel when it is time,? Wright said of retiring from coaching. ?You get the records, the wins and the losses, but it is the memories with the kids and watching the teams develop.?

Wright is going to continue as a chemistry teacher at the high school, and the tennis program will be turned over to long-time assistant coach Scott Hottell.

Wright said he is leaving the coaching in the family up to his daughter, Trudy Coler, the girls tennis coach at Westfield.

?I am nearing the end of my teaching career, and I thought it would be nice to teach and go home after school,? Wright said. ?I would like to see a year without coaching and see what that would be like.

?A lot of my decision was I just needed time ? I joke that it will take me two years to get my room clean before I retired anyway.?

Angola mayor Dick Hickman proclaimed Friday as ?Coach Tony Wright Day? in the town.

A proclamation will be read at the beginning of the girls tennis sectional at Angola, which is playing host to the sectional for the first time in a decade.

When Wright began coaching, the courts were black and the balls were white, at least when the matches started.

Since then, the racquets have gone from wood to graphite, there have been lights installed at most courts and an emphasis on lessons and top spin have been added to the game.

Wright said he doesn?t see players, especially the boys, hitting the ball any harder than in the past.

?There have been changes in how the game has been played, but surprisingly ? do the boys hit with more power than they did then? I don?t think so,? he said. ?The power game hasn?t changed.?

And neither has Wright.

gjones@jg.net

dr oz washington redskins north country brian mcknight sbux nfldraft asante samuel