The Catawba Ridge Copperheads have hired Krysti Blocker as their new girls’ tennis coach.

Blocker comes to Catawba Ridge from Clover High where she has helped to coach cross-country and track for the past three years. She will be a special education teacher at Catawba Ridge.

Despite helping to coach two different sports at Clover, neither of which were tennis, Blocker has been playing tennis since she was 9-years-old and played in high school in Ohio at Troy High School.

“I love coaching,” she said.

The girls’ tennis program at Catawba Ridge will be in its second season in 2020, if there are sports in the fall. Last year’s girls team made the playoffs falling in the first round 5-1 to Mid-Carolina. With no seniors on last year’s team, the program is poised to improve this year.

“I want to grow the tennis program,” Blocker said. “They were really talented and I heard really good things about them.”

Blocker got started in tennis herself as a young child by attending a summer camp. She learned about the game at camp, but then the more she played it, the more she learned about herself as she grew older.

“As I got older, it was a source of confidence for me,” she said. “It made me feel good about myself. Tennis is something you can always play the older you get.”

Blocker was one of about eight applicants for the job according to Catawba Ridge athletic director Rick Lewis. One thing that helped land Blocker the job was her teaching credentials.

“She will be an on-campus teacher and will be around the girls, so that will help,” Lewis said.

Lewis said having a coach on campus as a teacher, especially with the unknown future of education for the 2020-2021 school year because of COVID-19, is a bonus. Lewis said that Blocker also had a big fan in Clover athletic director Bailey Jackson.

“Bailey raved about her,” Lewis said.

Blocker lives in Fort Mill with her husband and two young children.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep