Green River High School’s head tennis coach Phil Harder was honored with the South Conference Girls Coach of the Year award after the conference tournament in Cheyenne Sept. 20. The award is his fifth regional coaching award, winning it twice as the boys coach and three times for coaching the girls.
Harder said the award is a recognition of the coaching staff he works with throughout the season.
“It’s a group effort,” Harder said. “When they recognize me, they’re also recognizing the coaching staff.”
Being the head coach for a team, results in a lot of work outside of simply coaching players during practices and competition. Harder said the role also entails a lot of paperwork and advance classroom planning for days when he’s on the road with the team.
“I’m a teacher first,” he said. “I have a duty to all my kids.”
After coming back from State, Harder said he spent a week working early mornings and evenings after school to get caught up with his classes. While he admits he doesn’t enjoy the paperwork portion of the job, working with the players and assistant coaches makes up for it.
Harder said one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a coach isn’t helping a player get better at tennis, but to help them use what they’ve learned through playing tennis in other areas of their life.
“As tennis coaches, we get the opportunity to shape these players both on the tennis court and off, as do other sports,” Harder said. “Hopefully, they learn more than just being good tennis players.”
Harder credits his decision to become a teacher and a tennis coach because of the coaches he worked with as a student at GRHS.
“This is my eighth year as the head coach of the Wolves and Lady Wolves tennis teams and I got involved because of how integral my tennis coaches were to my development when I was in high school,” he said.
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