Just two matches in to his sixth season as the Quakers’ head coach, Dickerson earned his 100th career win with the program.
When you follow one of the winningest high school tennis coaches in history, recording 100 wins may seem like just a drop in the bucket.
For Moorestown High School girls tennis head coach Steve Dickerson, however, 100 wins represents a ton of success in a little more than five years.
In 2013, Dickerson took over as the head coach of Moorestown girls tennis after long-time coach Bill Kingston retired from the girls program with 738 wins. On Wednesday, Dickerson reached triple-digits himself, winning his 100th career match as Moorestown defeated Pemberton High School, 5–0.
Dickerson recognized he had big shoes to fill when he took over for Kingston, who remains Moorestown’s boys tennis coach and has won more than 1,100 matches with that program.
“Bill is a legend,” Dickerson said. “I just supplemented what he started. His work ethic is amazing. The guy loves tennis.”
Dickerson’s main focus is to make sure all of the players within his program are working hard every practice. He said the focus isn’t necessarily on winning every single match, but instead on improving each day.
“I try to have fun,” Dickerson said. “It’s not all about winning. The wins are not what’s important. It’s striving to win and making sure they work hard to get better.”
Captains Eliza Broder and Emma Regovich said Dickerson’s coaching style connects with the players, describing him as relaxed. One of the things Broder and Regovich like most about Dickerson are some of the drills he brings to practice. Dickerson’s son, Ryan, was a star player at Moorestown High School from 2012 through 2015 and now plays tennis for Duke University. Some of the drills Moorestown girls tennis does are the same drills Ryan does at Duke.
“He throws in a lot of what his son Ryan does at Duke,” Broder said. “That’s definitely helpful and it’s really cool to practice how the Duke team practices.”
Dickerson acknowledged the large amount of interest in the tennis programs helps him field a competitive team every season. This year, Moorestown has 35 players between its junior varsity and varsity teams.
“Sometimes you have a diamond in the rough down the road,” Dickerson said of having a large team.
In Dickerson’s first five years, Moorestown has won at least 17 matches every season. In Dickerson’s tenure so far, the Quakers have lost just 26 times, with most of those losses coming against some of the state’s top programs in Central and North Jersey. Moorestown has also won three sectional titles in Dickerson’s time as a coach from 2013 to 2015.
The last two seasons, Moorestown came up short of a sectional championships, falling to Hightstown High School both years in the Central Jersey Group III tournament. This year, the Quakers are switching to South Jersey Group III as they aim to earn their first sectional title in three years.
Dickerson believes the team can be a title contender despite having lost two of the team’s three singles players from 2017. Regovich moved up to first singles this year and Dickerson identified her as one of the players who have stepped up as a leader.
“She leads by example with her play and the way she works,” Dickerson said. “She works with a weight trainer. She works offseason. She plays tournaments. So people look up to her.”
“Over the summer, when (Broder) was away, I ran a lot of the captain’s practices,” Regovich said about stepping up as a leader. “During the matches, you make sure to cheer on the whole team.”
Dickerson also spoke highly of juniors Grace Leese and Julia McBride, both of whom played doubles last year and moved up to second and third singles, respectively, in 2018.
“Everyone has gotten better in the offseason and everyone plays their part perfectly,” Broder said. “Everyone plays an important part in our lineup.”
The Quakers’ new starting lineup will be tested in multiple tournaments early this season. Moorestown was scheduled to play in the Haddonfield Invitational tournament last weekend. On Sept. 15, the Quakers will host their annual Moorestown Classic tournament.
