TENNIS TENNIS

For Gilbert boys’ tennis coach Mark Cagle, tennis is really not a new endeavor.

It’s a sport he has participated in a long time with his wife playing tennis for years in addition to his 3 years serving as A.C. Flora assistant coach where his son, Stephen, played his last 2 years.

While at A.C. Flora, Cagle led the team to the playoffs each year. What made that special was the relationships and memories he built with those teams.

One thing Cagle is looking forward to this year is building special relationships with the young men of the Gilbert tennis team because memories and relationships are the only thing that sports can bring.

Even though there will be ups and downs, knowing that working together to create relationships to promote individual and team success is something that is truly special for Cagle.

He has witnessed the past 4 years at Gilbert the potential greatness in student-athletes. The motto at Gilbert High School is ‘We are a crew’, meaning students, teacher, administrators, parents, and community members are part of creating an educational and athletic environment that is 2nd to none.

Cagle believes in the boys of the Gilbert tennis team and looks forward to sharing his passions with these young men. He has worked with girls’ tennis coach Patty Spires and her husband Terry Spires for the last 4 years coaching high school football.

He’s excited and humbled to work with coach Patty Spires, whom he said has done exemplary work with the girls tennis team. He’s looking forward to working with her to build an extraordinary boys tennis program that will build relationships and hopefully elevate the team to new heights.

In addition, Cagle looks forward to motivating himself and the team to be the best they can be. He has a number of players returning and he looks forward to seeing where they will go. A philosophy he plans to use from football is true success will not be determined based on the win-loss record.

While winning is important and Cagle strives for excellence in that area, true excellence will be evident by promoting character traits and quality choices that will put his young men in positions to be exemplary fathers, husbands, and positive role models to our community and world.