A season of uncertainty became a season of success for Minnetonka. Now, the Skippers are striving for a finish consistent with the past two seasons, when they twice hoisted the state championship trophy.
Minnetonka won the 2021 and 2022 state titles thanks to a wealth of talent and the drive of then-coach Brent Lundell, who took over after the passing of Minnetonka tennis coaching legend, Dave Stearns.
This season, graduation sapped the program of much of its strength in state tournaments, and the contract of Lundell, who also coaches the Eden Prairie boys tennis team, did not not been renewed.
Minnetonka dug into its recent past to find a replacement, hiring former player Jessa Richards-Boike to lead the team. Richards-Boike helped lead the Skippers to a few state tournaments before embarking on a successful college tennis career at Augustana (SD).
Since graduating in 2016, Richards-Boike has remained involved in the Twin Cities tennis scene. Before being hired at Minnetonka, she was an assistant coach at Holy Family in Victoria.
“I was very excited, as a former Skipper, to have the chance to come back with the program,” Richards-Boike said.
But she didn’t have time to fully invest in her team, because she had a little girl, Raya, on August 21.
How to coach a team while on maternity leave? Find help. Fortunately, there were many.
There was longtime assistant Jim Elvestrom, who has girls in the program and is a familiar face.
And there’s always dad.
Richards-Boike’s father, Dan Richards, was the head women’s tennis coach at Robbinsdale Armstrong for 12 years.
“I was there for the first week (of practice), then I did some back-end stuff,” Richards-Boike said.
“Jim has been great. He’s a good coach and it’s good to have someone around who knows the team,” Richards-Boike said. “And with my dad, he was able to be there and lead all the practices. I came when I could.”
Still on maternity leave from her sales career, Richards-Boike recently took over the head coaching reins, in time to guide the team through its appearance in the state tournament.
Minnetonka is seeded third in Class 2A, behind No. 1 seed Rochester Mayo and No. 2 Edina. All four of the Skippers’ losses this season have come to teams, twice each. They begin their defense with a quarterfinal match at 2 p.m. Tuesday against East Ridge.
Richards-Boike hasn’t been with the team all season, but she’s encouraged by what she’s seen recently.
“Expectations may have been lowered a little bit this year, but we have seven returning seniors and some great captains, Karina Elvestrom and Carter Nye, and they have been great leaders,” she said. “My dad and I have talked, and what we really want is for the girls to have a good experience and have fun.”
Serves and volleys
*The Class 2A tournament will be held at the University of Minnesota’s Baseline Tennis Center, Class 1A Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center in south Minneapolis. The team competition takes place Tuesday and Wednesday, the individual brackets take place Thursday and Friday.
*Any team wishing to win a state championship will have to come through Rochester. Mayo is the No. 1 seed in Class 2A and is led by the Loftus sisters, Claire, a junior, and Aoife, a freshman, and has another talented freshman in Malea Diehn. All three also qualified for the individual tournament, the two Loftus sisters in singles and Diehn in doubles. Mayo is undefeated (23-0) and has been atop the Class 2A state rankings all season. Mayo has qualified for the state tournament 26 of the last 27 years, but has never won a team championship. Defending Class 1A team champion Rochester Lourdes is seeded No. 1 and is aiming for 15th place.th state title in team history.
*The top seeds in the Class 2A singles division are No. 1 Cassandra Li of Eagan, No. 2 Claire Loftus and No. 3 Ava Nelson of Elk River. In Class 1A singles, No. 1 seed Isabelle Einess of Breck is seeking her third consecutive appearance in a championship match. She lost in the 2021 finals as a sophomore at Minnehaha Academy and won the 1A title a year ago after transferring to Breck. The No. 2 seed in 1A is Annika Harberts of Providence Academy. No. 3 is Leah Maddock of Osakis.
