by Kate Minella ’28

During the middle of the summer the girls tennis team received an email, expressing that the old coach had decided to leave the program. With preseason starting in less than a month Wyoming Seminary was in desperate need of a tennis coach, or the season could have been canceled. 2 weeks before the season started Fred Hockenbury was announced to be the girls tennis coach for the 2026 season. Fred was automatically a good fit for the program since he worked with most of the girls on the team before. Fred has 21 years of experience working with beginner players all the way to WTA players on tour. He was the assistant tennis coach at Misericordia College, tennis professional at Newberry Estate Country Club, and operates a tennis program at Odyssey. 

Coaching High School tennis was a different kind of environment then Coach Hockenbury was used to. He said, “I felt the new year wasn’t just a season for me but a new standard for the team. It was the next chapter for both myself and the team’s future.” Coach Hockenbury was determined to win not only districts but the state championship too, but more importantly he wanted to make sure the whole team was seen. Previous years not everyone was paid attention to, so they never gained the knowledge to get better at the sport. He changed that by focusing on the starters but the other players who weren’t in the starting line up. Many improved so much that they were able to be in the lineup during some matches to give starters a break. “Fred was great at making JV feel like we were a part of the team just as much as varsity. When I met him on the first day of practice he automatically wanted to get to know me, and he did this with all my teammates that he had not yet met. Fred made the team feel more like a family than just a team, which made for the best and most fun year of tennis I had in my highschool career,” Brianna Falacone, 27. 

Coach Hockenbury had a very successful season this year with the team being the Wyoming Valley Conference finalist going 13-0 during regular season matches. During the district tournament, the team faced Scranton Prep for the 3rd year in a row. Even though the team wasn’t able to pull off the win, Coach Hockenbury expressed, “coaching was more than teaching tennis, it was teaching life. Just like a match, there are ups and downs, momentum shifts, tough points, and moments of confidence. What matters is learning how to respond, how to stay steady, and how to keep playing with a purpose.” He was able to bring the teams of Lizzie Waever and Cece Pons, and Kate Minella and Katie Zhang to semis and finals of the double district earning a bronze and silver medal. That’s the furthest Sem girls have made it in the doubles tournament. “I’m so glad Fred was the one to take the role, he put in the effort to make the team super fun this year” Lizzie Weaver, ’27.