A swinging success in winning district gold
Chris Conrad was in his sixth season as Liberty’s girls tennis coach this fall and said he has also coached the boys for five seasons.
He was asked if Helena Lynn was one of the best players he has ever coached.
Conrad didn’t hesitate in saying yes, and then added, “including the boys.”
Lynn became Liberty’s first district champ since Lindsay Gray in 2004 and advanced to the PIAA 3A semifinals before losing to eventual state champ Graci Li of Unionville. She also lost her consolation match to Mia Matriccino of Spring-Ford to finish fourth in the state.
But in racking up a 23-2 record and also winning the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference No. 1 singles championship, Lynn became The Morning Call’s girls tennis player of the year for 2022.
“She and the girl she played in the district finals [Parkland’s Lexie Warsing] would both do well on the boys side,” Conrad said of Lynn. “They’re that talented.”
Lynn, who comes from a tennis family that includes her sister Veronica who played this season at Notre Dame-Green Pond, is a home-schooled student. Her brothers Danny and David played for Liberty and both were district doubles champs who were coached by Conrad as was Veronica before she transferred.
“Notre Dame had an academic program that was perfect for Veronica and I was glad she transferred there,” Conrad said.
But he was also glad that Helena decided to play for Liberty after concentrating on tournaments as a freshman in 2021.
“Even though she’s home-schooled she represented Liberty well,” he said. “She has always lived here, like five or six minutes away.”
Lynn was happy to play for the Hurricanes.
“It was really a great season for my first time,” she said. “I wanted to experience playing on a team. I want to play on a tennis team in college, preferably at a Division I school if I can. I really didn’t have too many expectations coming in. I just tried to have fun and try my best out there.”
Lynn said that through her dad’s influence, she has been playing tennis nearly her entire life and she says she loves the sport.
“I like the individuality of it,” she said. “You have to problem-solve on your own, especially in tournaments. You have to figure out what to do. I also love playing doubles.”
Lynn has won national doubles championships in Florida and Massachusetts.
While not 100% sure of her plans, she said she’d like to play for Liberty again next year.
“It’s definitely a possibility,” she said. “I would love to come back. Hopefully, I can go to states again and maybe do better than I did this year. I wasn’t disappointed losing to [Li]. I just tried to do the best I can and I was happy to win two matches and reach the semifinals. Obviously, you always hope you can do better but she is a great player and she played better than me that day.”
All season long, Lynn was the better player. Prior to the state semis, she lost only one set all season and that was to Warsing in their regular-season match. At districts, she defeated Warsing, a freshman, 6-2, 6-2 to complete a dominant district run that saw her lose just 10 games in four district matches. She continued her run with 6-3, 6-0 wins over both Allison Root of Owen J Roberts and Anya Rosenbach of New Oxford in the state tournament.
“For a sophomore, Helena has a level of competence and a level of forgetfulness that’s a good thing,” Conrad said. “She’ll lose a point, but she has the ability to move on. You don’t see that from a sophomore. She’s mature for her age and it’s great she has the ability to make a mistake and then move on from it.”
Conrad said Lynn also has the focus to stick to her game plan.
“We game plan and that’s something you don’t always do in high school and she sticks to it,” he said. “She listens. A lot of really talented players have egos, but she’s the opposite of that. She’s willing to listen, willing to get better and she’s very talented on top of it.”
Against Warsing in the district final, Lynn was willing to stay back at the baseline and slug it out, but Conrad said she has outstanding skills at the net.
“As someone who has played national-level doubles, she has very good hands, probably the best I’ve seen from a coaching perspective,” Conrad said. “She will come up to the next in a match. She can serve and volley.”
While Lynn is a soft-spoken person who would prefer to lead by example, she made a lot of friends on the Liberty team and was more than willing to work with and help others when asked.
“What made this year so special was not my individual results,” she said. “I enjoyed being on a team and getting to meet new people no matter what level they were at. That didn’t matter. It was just fun being around them and playing together. I really liked all of my teammates. They were all so supportive and Coach Conrad really helped me. I wouldn’t have been able to do as well as I did without him.”
Asked if she’d like to become more vocal, Lynn said, “No, I’m pretty comfortable with who I am and how I do things. I just want to keep getting better.”