The Mount Si High School boys tennis program begins a new era this fall with a new coach.

Jim Gibowski, who teaches photography at the school, comes on board to coach the Wildcats this season, replacing longtime coach Gary Olson, who left the program this summer due to conflicts with his off-campus employment. Gibowski learned about the job through a story in the Valley Record.

Assisting him this season are veteran assistant coaches Jane Job and Eric Hanson. The new head coach is happy to have them as part of the staff.

“Being a new coach, Jane and Eric just have been terrific,” Gibowski said. “Jane, being a PE teacher, knows so much more [about] warmup exercises, and those are important things. Eric’s a volunteer over here, he’s great.”

The team finished 0-9 in 2007, and brings back a number of seniors, most notably Stephen Salmon and Scott Paophavihanh. Several other seniors also return, among them Mitch Hubner, Ryan Oswald and Brian Johnson. Johnson is excited about the season.

“I expect it to be a pretty good season,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good players this year and we’ll be playing a lot of teams that we know a lot about.”

Salmon notices some differences in how Gibowski is coaching the team thus far.

The new coach definitely has a different teaching style than Olson did, “a little bit more hands- off,” Salmon said.

Johnson is also noticing the changes.

“We’re actually instituting a new program where we have to run a 6:30 mile, and that’s going to be a challenge for a lot of the guys,” he said. “We’re definitely going to be in better shape than last year.”

Gibowski, 55, has played and coached various sports and is himself a tennis player, with his home facility being Robinswood in Bellevue.

“I can still play a pretty good game of tennis,” he said.

The coach, now in his 11th year teaching at Mount Si, wants to see his players do their best in every match, regardless of their opponents.

“This is one thing I’ll be telling my teams constantly,” Gibowski said. “I always think Mount Si kids play hard. I take a lot of pride in looking at other sports that, win or lose, our kids play hard. I want to just continue that with tennis.”

With the divisional realignment for Kingco, tennis plays in a mixed 3A/4A division. Look for Mercer Island to be the runaway favorite within the 3A, but in the division, Skyline and Eastlake may be the top teams. The Wildcats could contend, but their first two matches are against the two toughest 4A teams in the entire league in Newport and Garfield, so those contests look to be huge barometers for where the program is currently.

That said, the future may look bright.

“This program is definitely getting a lot more popular,” Johnson said. He added that he’s seeing a lot of new faces on the court. “People are talking about it around school, all of the sudden.” Johnson has a modest goal in mind for the team this season.

“I’d say we can win at least two or three matches this year,” he said.