Badin Showing Optimism With Youthful Roster, Defeats Taylor To Begin Season
Badin High School junior Genevieve Gallagher eyes a ball Aug. 13, 2026, during a girls tennis match against Taylor at New London Hills Club in Hamilton.
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By Rick Cassano
HAMILTON – There is no question that youth will be served this season when it comes to Badin High School’s girls tennis team.
The Rams have no seniors and only one junior on their varsity roster as they move into the 2026 campaign, which began with a 3-2 victory over Taylor on Thursday at New London Hills Club.
“I think that’s a good thing,” sophomore Mia Saurber said of Badin’s youth. “We all want to be here and have fun. Everybody wants to win, but as long as we’re having fun, that’s the most important thing.”
Genevieve Gallagher is the lone junior on the seven-player varsity roster. Saurber, Harper Brown, Harper Hendershot, Amelia Tavares and Jorja Kunkel are the sophomores, and Madelyn Kaesemeyer is the freshman.
Veteran coach Anne Zettler said this team has some potential, so she doesn’t mind the abundance of youth.
“It’s good because hopefully they’ll stick with it and keep learning more,” Zettler said. “They’re pretty nice players. We’ve just got quite a few that are new to Badin and new to tennis. Hopefully they’ll learn enough to keep playing their whole life. You can find somebody on your level to play and it’s still fun no matter how old you are.”
Zettler is an ambassador for that kind of mentality. She’s nearing her 79th birthday and still regularly plays tennis and pickleball while coaching Ram tennis in the fall and spring, having started as head coach with the girls and boys in the 2001-02 school year.
Zettler said she didn’t take up tennis until she was about 40, starting with some lessons at Rolling Hills Swim & Tennis Club in Fairfield.
“I like pickleball, but I like tennis a lot better,” said Zettler, who graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1965 (Notre Dame merged with Hamilton Catholic to form Badin in the fall of 1966). “I just play for fun. As long as I don’t break anything, I might as well do it. It’s good exercise. All of my family’s golfers, but I’m not a very good golfer.”
How long will she keep coaching? Zettler said she knows the end isn’t far off.
“I’ve got a seventh-grade grandson who wants to play,” Zettler said. “I coached his big brother and I’d hate not to coach him, but we’ll see. I might make it until he’s a freshman. I still feel good and I like kids, and they usually don’t give me any trouble. If I ever have to start yelling, maybe I won’t like it as much. But I haven’t had that.”
Badin has some girls tennis tradition. Nancy and Kylee Wiegand were Division II state doubles champions in 2000, and Kylee Wiegand teamed with Jessica Flannery to take the D-II state doubles title in 2003. More recently, 2025 graduate Caroline Boyle was a three-time D-II state singles qualifier and is now playing at the University of Dayton.
Zettler said she has 28 girls in the program this year. Hendershot, Gallagher, Saurber and Kunkel all saw a lot of doubles action last season.
Saurber and Kunkel are longtime friends who are playing together at No. 2 doubles again this year. They rolled to victory against Taylor, as did the No. 1 doubles unit of Brown and Gallagher. Tavares recorded a win at No. 2 singles.
Saurber said she started playing when she was 5, but didn’t take it seriously until the last couple years.
“It’s a great group of girls to be around,” Saurber said. “This team has great chemistry.”
Zettler said this group isn’t loaded with players who have been taking lessons for years. That makes the postseason road even tougher to navigate.
The Rams have moved up to Division I this year, and while that may sound daunting, Zettler said she believes D-II is even more difficult in this part of the state.
The BHS coach said her returning players are showing more aggressiveness on the court, though double-faulting on serves remains an issue throughout the squad.
Dayton Chaminade Julienne and Kettering Alter have dominated the Greater Catholic League Coed Division in recent times. Zettler said they are once again the teams to beat this year.
The Rams will be back in action Tuesday at Fairfield.
“I think we’ll win some matches,” Zettler said. “They are a hard-working group. There’s no prima-donna stuff. I haven’t seen any drama or meanness. I’ve had some of that in the past, but they all seem to want to help each other out. I think it’ll be a fun year for everybody.”
