There's a new head coach, the team's home "field" is under construction and changes in the recruiting policy have narrowed the field of potential players. Yet that's not stopping first-year tennis coach Dave Alden from predicting big things for the men's and women's teams.

"The women's team, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champions and North Central Regional champions the past two years, are again favored to win the conference and regional titles," Alden said.

The men's team has won the RMAC title four of the last five years and the North Central Regional title in 2002. "Competitors are expecting a weakened team this year," Alden said, "but I think we're going to surprise people in the RMAC."

That's despite the fact that the Auraria tennis courts are closed to make way for a new parking garage. The team practices at Gates Tennis Center near the Cherry Creek Mall. Because of transportation constraints, Alden figures that each player loses about five hours of practice a week. "We have a window of time between 2:30 and 5 p.m. for practice. The players need to be back to campus by 5 p.m. so they can get to their jobs, their families or their studies," Alden explained. "Although getting out of the gate has been tough, I'm hopeful that our shortened practice time won't be apparent as we get further into the season."

New recruitment practices to recruit only in-state students left Alden scrambling to fill the team rosters without tapping talent in Australia and New Zealand, where players are available to start the school year in January.

In response, Alden held open tryouts in February. "I've found some real great kids who are really going to make a difference for us."

Alden is new to coaching at the college level, but he has a lengthy coaching resume. Before coming to Metro State, he was a full-time tennis pro at Regency Sport and Health in Virginia, coaching both the junior and adult teams. In addition, he was a director at the Fort Collins Indoor Tennis Center, where he developed a program for top-ranked juniors in northern Colorado. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Poudre High School in Fort Collins.

Alden probably can relate to his team better than many seasoned coaches. That's because he's also a student at Metro, working toward a degree in sport industry operations.

"I understand the pressures of being a student and of trying to perform. Their daily life is my daily life," Alden says of his team. "The only difference is I'm out on the field coaching instead of on the court playing."

The men's and women's tennis season gets under way Friday and Saturday in Topeka, Kan., for the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association/RMAC Challenge, where they'll face Northwest Missouri State, Washburn University and Truman State.

For more Metro tennis information go to http://www.mscd.edu/~runners/tennis/tennishome.htm