MONROE — In spring 2017, the Monroe boys tennis program faced uncertainty. Only a handful of players returned from the previous season, including state participant Silas Setterstrom, and the team was without a coach. 

Determined to keep the program alive for at least one more year, Athletic Director Jeff Newcomer turned to former student teacher Matt Bordner. Although Bordner had no tennis background or knowledge, Newcomer was confident in his choice. 

“I just noticed that all the kids flocked to him,” Newcomer said. “He has that personality that kids want to be around. I approached Matt about it. He said he knew nothing about tennis but I told him it was fine. He could learn that stuff, but the kids responded to him.”

In fact, the only knowledge Bordner had of tennis was on the Nintendo Wii, a video game console.

“We have such a good time laughing about this because my background was Wii tennis,” Bordner said. “I grew up playing football, basketball, baseball and track. I was only mildly familiar with tennis.”

Since Setterstrom’s second trip to state in 2017, Bordner has sent three boys doubles teams and a singles player to state. Two of the three athletes that went to state in 2023 return next spring, setting the program up for more success. 

“Now we have a program that is busting at the seams and sending kids to state every year,” Newcomer said. “It’s a great story, and he [Bordner] is doing an amazing thing.”

Humble Beginnings

The first year, Bordner learned more than he taught. Silas Setterstrom took charge of practices, Badger Conference coaches advised Bordner in seeding meetings and Bordner learned technique and strategy through YouTube videos. 

“I give a lot of credit to Silas. He was a senior and basically ran the practices. I was just a supervisor,” Bordner said. “The coaches in the Badger Conference were also fantastic. I knew nothing about seeding, and they would tell me where my players should be seeded and what seeds I should fight for. It’s been a huge culture of learning.”

The initial plan was to sustain the tennis program for just one more year — numbers were poor, the high school courts were crumbling and athletes put in no off-season work. When Bordner was hired onto the Monroe high school staff in the fall of 2017, though, the plan changed.

“At the time, we thought it was a one-year thing and it will probably dissolve,” Bordner said. “I ended up getting hired at Monroe and the mindset changed. We thought maybe we could keep it going.”

 Bordner doubled his coaching experience in short order by also coaching the Monroe girls team, which plays in the fall. 

A Numbers Game

Although Bordner had no tennis background, he grew up playing sports and saw common threads in surrounding successful teams.

“As a kid, I paid attention to sports management,” Bordner said. “In high school, we won a football state championship, so I knew what it took to win. What I noticed is that, programs that sustain for a long time have numbers.”

Bordner began recruiting athletes — not necessarily tennis players — every chance he got, including in the classroom. In fact, that’s how senior Wes Saunders began tennis.

“I had a math class with Bordner in the winter of my freshman year, and every day he’d ask me if I was going out for tennis in the spring,” Saunders said. “I wasn’t doing anything in the spring, so I thought I’d try it. I ended up falling in love with it. He [Bordner] has a passion for building his team, and he shared that passion.”

Each year, Bordner aimed to have 30 kids in the program. He was able to hit that goal by getting the kids to have fun while learning the game.

“Coach Bordner made tennis fun for the new players,” 2023 state participant Ryan Mathiason said. “That’s how it started for me. I think Coach Bordner set the tone in practice that we can have fun but we are also going to get better.”

It took a couple years, though, before the hard work in practice translated to matches.

Climbing the Ladder

In 2021, four years after Bordner took over the program and when Mathiason and Saunders were freshmen, Monroe didn’t win a single team match. 

“That was a wake-up call for our program,” Bordner said. “At that point, we were able to set up the program to compete. Numbers was first, and the second phase was setting up a procedure for kids to earn a varsity spot that was logical.”

Bordner set up a ranked-ladder system, where each athlete earns their position based purely on skill. Each week, players earn the opportunity to challenge an athlete three spots ahead of them for position. The top 10 players in the ladder make up the varsity squad — four singles and three doubles teams.

“It’s objective,” Bordner said. “There are no feelings involved. The kids that are motivated latch onto that. They know that there are no favorites. If they get better at tennis, they are in the mix.”

The system quickly turned the program around, as Charlie Frehner and Aaron Roidt were the first state participants since Silas Setterstrom four years prior in 2017. 

On the girls side, in 2018 juniors Jensen Christensen and Grace Tostrud went to state for the first time as special qualifiers at No. 1 Doubles. The next year, they finished second in the Division 2 tournament, losing to top-seeded and unbeaten Erika Curtin and Ellie Macksood of Xavier.

Continuing the growth under Bordner, the boys tennis team went from zero team wins in 2021 to third in the Badger Conference in 2022 behind Edgewood and Oregon. In the postseason, Roidt went to state again, this time with doubles partner Chris Giasson. 

“There’s always been a couple key characters,” Saunders said. “Chris Giasson was one that, one year he was playing low varsity-top JV. The next year he made enough improvements to go to the state tournament. I think Bordner inspired us to take it on ourselves to help improve the program and make it about improving as a team and individually.”

Again in 2023, Monroe took third in conference, dropping just two matches to Edgewood and Oregon. Most recently, Monroe sent doubles partners Max Petitjean and Mathiason and singles player Matthew Setterstrom to state in spring 2023.

“We understood from them [those that went to state] that you don’t have to play tennis your whole life to be a great tennis player,” Mathiason said. “They picked up this game at the start of high school as well and it shows what hard work can do.”

Hungry for More

Now that Monroe has had some success, sending athletes to state for three straight years, the bar has been raised. 

“All of us are so hungry,” Bordner said. “Once you taste that success, it’s huge. That’s fueled us.”

Monroe moves to the Rock Valley Conference for tennis in 2024, but Bordner and his team anticipate being in the mix for a conference title.

“It will be interesting shifting into the Rock Valley Conference. Everyone has the expectation that it will be more of an even playing field,” Saunders said. “You still have to go out there and play those matches. Now that we’ve proven we can hold our own in the Badger, our goal is to be one of the top teams in the Rock.”

Aside from winning a team conference title, Monroe has its sights set on taking the next step in the postseason.

“We are all ready to make that next push,” Bordner said of qualifying for team sectionals and state. “The last couple of years we’ve been on that brink. How can we close that gap and make team state?”

For players like Mathiason and Matthew Setterstrom, getting back to Nielson Stadium is on the list. For Saunders, whose special request to qualify for state was denied, and those who are vying for a chance at state, the desire is stronger than ever.

“For many of us, the goal is to make it to state,” Saunders said. “It’s more realistic for some than others. For those that it’s realistic for, you push for that and see how well you can do at sectionals and subsectionals. For those that it’s not so realistic, work hard so it becomes realistic because it’s always obtainable.”