GIRLS’ TENNIS / DAVE McKIBBEN : Unger Answers Call to Fill Capistrano Valley Coaching Void

Susan Unger is the first to admit she’s in the dark about high school tennis. She doesn’t know the players, the teams or her fellow coaches.

Until a few weeks ago, it didn’t matter.

But when Unger received a call in late August from Capistrano Valley Athletic Director Tom White, that all changed. Unger was already plenty busy as a tennis coach for a homeowners association in Lake Forest and as executive director of College Athletic Scholarship Services, a Mission Viejo company that matches up academics and athletics for high school players looking to play college tennis.

But once she met White, she decided to take a chance on coaching high school tennis.

“I was really impressed with Tom and it seemed like a really good situation,” Unger said.

It was a situation that had been open since Kerry Leander resigned as Cougar coach in late April after 12 years. On paper, Unger seemed a bit overqualified for the job.

She played at Elon College in North Carolina and Radford University in Virginia, then spent three years as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech and a few more years teaching at the Van de Meer Tennis Academy in Hilton Head, S.C. But since moving to Orange County, Unger has been tutoring “pee wees” in Lake Forest.

So she’s actually stepping up in age and size.

“I’m excited,” she said. “I don’t know anything, but the girls have been great so far.”

Unger, 35, grew up in Charlottesville, Va., a tennis hotbed.

“The population is 50,000 and you can’t seem to get a court anywhere in town,” she said. “Even when tennis is down everywhere else, it’s big in Charlottesville. You can’t help but learn how to play tennis if you grow up there.”

If Unger can develop a few more players in addition to her two top singles players, Jenny Bailey and Leigh Ann Merryman, she could find her team advancing deep into the playoffs. Last year, Capistrano Valley reached the Southern Section Division I semifinals.

“I’ve learned that high school and college matches aren’t won by your No. 1 and No. 2 players, but by the team,” said Unger, who coached her first match Friday, a 10-8 victory over Laguna Beach. “I’d like to win, but I’m more interested in developing quality people.”

Unger is also interested in helping more than tennis players. Her company will soon expand to help water polo, soccer and volleyball players find the colleges that best fit their needs.

PRIME RECRUIT

Andy Stewart is another former college player and teaching pro who didn’t figure to be coaching high school tennis this year. But Stewart, like Unger, finds himself coaching one of the county’s top teams, Corona del Mar.

Stewart, who has been teaching at Costa Mesa Tennis Club for 14 months, was recruited by the mother of Anne Yelsey, a promising freshman for the Sea Kings.

“I wasn’t that interested,” said Stewart, 28. “It’s a lot of hours and not much pay. I thought I could make more teaching at Costa Mesa. But now that I took it, I’m having a lot of fun.”

Stewart, who played at Huntington Beach High, was hired on July 19. He replaced Tim Mang, who led the Sea Kings to two Sea View League titles and a Southern Section Division I title in four years. Stewart’s first order of business was trying to convince Caylan Leslie, the fifth-ranked girls’ 18 player in Southern California, to play this season. But he was unsuccessful.

“I was really hoping she’d play, but she decided she had too many things going on,” said Stewart, who played on the satellite tour for four years after a four-year career at Fresno State. “I told her I’d work with her if she didn’t want to play all the matches.”

Even without Leslie, who helped the Sea Kings to the section title in 1997, Corona del Mar still has a formidable singles lineup with Nadia Vaughan, Kim Singer and Yelsey, who won seven of nine sets Thursday in Stewart’s debut, a victory over Woodbridge, 9-9, 91-77 on games.

“I’m not starting from scratch,” Stewart said. “All these girls can play. We can be pretty good.”

Already, Stewart has compiled a pretty impressive coaching staff. He has brought in teaching pro Phil Dent, a former top-10 player, and Dent’s son, Taylor, a touring pro and a former Sea King, to work with his players.

Not a bad start.