With a new head coach and sparkling new courts, the Mountain View boys tennis team is entering a new era this fall, one that Mike Richards and his players hope can be looked back on as a turning point for a program that has been low in numbers recently.

Richards is the third coach of the Mountain Lions over the past four seasons, and he has a clear vision for where he hopes to get the program to. It begins now, when his small team of six players — none of whom are seniors — serve up the 2026 campaign.

“We’re going to be competitive,” Richards said. “We don’t judge wins and losses. We have wins and learning. We just have a process we have to follow and every day’s a new day. It’s going to be a new challenge because everything’s different when you bring a new coach in. Just watch where we are and give us three years and see where we’re standing.”

Richards spent last year coaching at Fossil Ridge. He led the girls team to the Class 5A team state tournament last spring, and the Sabercats also qualified all seven lines to the individual state tournament.

However, Richards didn’t feel like Fossil Ridge was a good fit for him and he looked for a position elsewhere, eventually finding it at Mountain View.

He initially moved to Fort Collins not knowing if he was going to coach or not.

“Once you coach, you always want to coach,” he said. “So, I reached out to a couple of schools and that’s how I ended up at Fossil. All the girls on that team, starters, made state. They all qualified, so we had a great season. But, like I said, it just wasn’t a good fit. So, I just started looking around and I interviewed for this position and talked to Ryan (Walstrom), the AD here and I think it was three days later, they hired me.”

The players have taken to their new coach and have bought into his vision for the program while adjusting to his style of coaching.

They believe his experience will play a significant role in not only this season, but moving forward with what he hopes the program will become.

“Definitely a little more rigorous and more running and stuff, having to do some stretching with bands,” junior Blake Wanke said of Richards’ practices. “It feels like he’s got a lot of experience, so it’s pretty exciting having a new coach. We’re at a point now where we can just go up. I think it’s going to be a good turning point.”

“He’s really invested in tennis, so that makes me confident in the new program that he’s starting,” junior captain Benson Chen added. “Plus, he was at Fossil Ridge last year, so I’m pretty confident in this guy. I fully agree with this being a turning point for Mountain View tennis because of our new courts and our new coach that’s really passionate about tennis. I believe that we will go far.”

The team’s small roster features two juniors, Blake Wanke and Chen, two sophomores in Eli Kempf and Eli Nierman, and two freshmen, Charles Lewis and Jonny Wanke, Blake’s younger brother.

There’s still time for more players to join the team and Richards hopes that if that doesn’t happen this season, the numbers will grow in the future as more players and the community recognize that Mountain View has a respectable program.

“Everything’s a Day 1,” Richards said. “First of all, you’ve got to start getting players in, and then we’ll play with a positive attitude of, we win respectful, we lose respectful. And as people see what the program that we’re building here is, more players will come; and that’s how we’ll set this program up. We’ll go from a program where we have very few players to, hopefully, in three years we’ll actually have enough for a JV.”

Despite having a small team that hasn’t seen success in a while, the players are excited for what the upcoming season holds for them.

Echoing their new coach, wins and losses don’t matter as much as learning and having fun. They are also excited about being part of a season that could be the foundation for rebuilding the program to the point where it can be competitive year in and year out.

“They’re rebuilding from the ground back up and I’m one of the people that will help rebuild this program and help build it to where they will be in the future,” Chen said. “It’s pretty exciting.”

“It’s going to be fun,” Blake Wanke added.

Loveland Red Wolves

Head coach: Nick Roe (Second season)

Returning state qualifiers: None

Players to watch: Joe Roe (Jr.), Carson Marler (So.)

Coach’s outlook: “Loveland High tennis is coming off a very successful season last year and has a lot of youth and new talent that is joining the team. We have five returning varsity players from last year’s season, and all are expected to play a critical role in the upcoming season. Joe Roe and Carson Marler are expected to play singles for us, and we will have tough competition for our 3rd singles spot. We have 15 total kids out this season, which is up from last year and the year prior, so we are continuing to build our program. We are excited to compete in our new conference this year and at 4A.”

Thompson Valley Eagles

Head coach: Jay Klagge (22nd season)

Returning state qualifiers: Matthew Woodcox (Jr.) and Gaitlyn Clark (Jr.)

Other players to watch: Logan Woods (Sr.), Grant Lefleur (So.), Brody Nelson (Jr.), Kevin Burleson (Jr.), Mason Mulholland (Fr.), Calan Woods (So.), Christian Price (Jr.), Nathaniel Chou (Jr.), Joel Boylan (So.), Chris Serrano (Sr.)

Coach’s outlook: “We have a fairly deep and experienced bunch. We have a couple of talented new faces, too. They’ve all put in some work in the offseason, hopefully it will allow us to compete in our new conference, and battle at several lines come regionals.  It’s been a great group to work with, and we hope to get better as the season progresses. That’s what it will take to win another conference championship.”