With the retirement of former Park City High School girls tennis coach Heather Nicholas, the Miners were looking for someone with experience to take the helm, someone who knows what it takes to win a state championship, especially in the team’s new, competitive region.
Enter Lani Wilcox, who has won two state championships in each of her last two stops, at Skyline (2017, 2019) coaching the boys team and at Judge Memorial (2011, 2012) leading the girls team. Park City is hoping that the tennis pro’s experience is what it needs to bring home another state championship. The Miners three-peated between 2015 and 2017 and won another title in 2013.
“As a tennis pro myself, I bring more of the coaching aspect,” Wilcox said. “I can help these girls with their game, etc., instead of just saying, ‘Oh, nice job.’ So I can actually really help that way, just in the coaching aspect.”
Wilcox said she thought she was done coaching high school tennis after leaving Skyline, but Park City’s players asked her to take the job if it was offered to her.
The Miners are coming off a fourth-place finish at the state tournament last year, 19 points behind a dominant Timpview squad. Park City has one more preseason match before squaring off against Brighton on Sept. 2.
All eyes will be on Park City’s Elle Martin, who made it to the state semifinals in first singles as a sophomore last year and to the second round as a freshman. She’ll be joined by Lauren Allen, who has appeared on Park City’s doubles team in the state tournament the last two years.
“I think they’re going to be good,” Wilcox said. “I think the girls are excited, they’re excited for a new season, and my philosophy as coach is always to have fun because I want these girls to like the sport for the rest of their life.
“I always feel like I’m kind of passing it forward just because tennis has always been so good to me, and I love my job.”
Wilcox says that the tennis in Class 5A is some of the best in the state, and she saw it firsthand while leading Skyline’s boys to their second state title under her watch. The Miners will also revisit her old stomping grounds when they face Skyline on the road on Sept. 16.
“What’s funny is we’re going back into the region that I retired from — into Region 6 with Skyline, Brighton,” Wilcox said. “So it’s a bigger and stronger region than they were in last year, so it’ll be good.”