The Aberdeen Roncalli tennis team will feature plenty of familiar faces this fall led by a new coach.

Ryan Bohle takes over the reins of the program after serving as an assistant last season.

While the Cavaliers have only had one week of practice, Bohle already has noticed a change in his role from a year ago.

“Obviously, there’s a lot more decisions to make than what I was doing as an assistant coach,” Bohle said. “I think last year I was just kind of going through a lot of drills and skills with the JV team and the middle schoolers, and now it’s the big-time decisions, so a little bit different responsibilities of course.”

What has helped to make the transition a bit smoother is that Bohle, who has a daughter on the team, knows most of the players who are on the squad.

“I think it would be a different situation if I was coming into the thing blind, where I didn’t know the kids,” Bohle said, “but I’ve been around a lot of these kids for 2-3 years of tennis, and some of them beyond that in different sports.”

The Cavaliers lost just one senior to graduation, so they have the bulk of the team returning, however there is still only one senior, that being Josie Mitzel.

Others returning players with varsity experience include Sydney Bohle, Gianna Cihak, Molleigh Hofer, Abby Andersen, Lydia Nora, and Natalie Sieh.

“There’s six slots and I think we had seven different girls that played somewhere in the lineup,” Coach Bohle said. “Some of them are fighting pretty hard for a spot right now. It’s certainly not a thing where we’re short on experience.”

Bohle said the top five players have distanced themselves a bit from the others, but the squad is balanced with a handful of players battling for the final varsity spot.

“I think 6 through 10 you could probably put 4 or 5 different people there and have really the same result,” Bohle said.

Roncalli is similar from last year in that the squad is still young, but the players have another year of experience under their belts for the upcoming campaign.

“I think the biggest thing is, last year some of them just kind of got thrown into the fire and didn’t really probably know what to expect,” Bohle said. “Now this year, I think after a year everybody knows a little more what to expect. Now, how that translates we’ll see. I certainly feel much better about it right now than I would have last year at this time in the same role.”

The Cavaliers have a quick start to their season, playing two matches on Tuesday in Mitchell against Huron and Mitchell, slightly more than week since practice got started.

While long-term goals have yet to be established, Bohle expects his players to show up and compete regardless of who the opponent is.

“We have really talked about the goals as of yet, but I think the expectation has been laid out there that when we are in something, we expect to win,” Bohle said. “I certainly think that there are going to be days where you play some upper echelon teams that it just kind of is what it is. And if you go out there and you improve and you’re getting better, and you learn something from it, that’s going to help you against somebody we can actually play with. But the expectation is, we absolutely, when we are in some things, we are going to win. We’re not going to just (show up).”

Bohle fully understands the dynamic of the situation where his players will be facing foes older than they are, but that does not dismiss the tennis ability that the Cavaliers possess.

“I’m looking forward to it. I think these girls, they have a lot of talent, there’s a lot of talent there. Now, where that translates once we get on the court, and we’re playing 16, 17, 18-year-old girls, that remains to be seen,” Bohle said. “There is a lot of talent there. Now, are we going to go immediately win a state championship? No, obviously, not. But I think that where we were last year and where we are now are two completely different things.”

Bohle and the Cavaliers are looking forward to the challenges that lie in front of them.

“I’m looking forward to a fun season,” Bohle said. “I’m looking forward to watching them all grow.”