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Kevin Kowalik will hit the courts this week at Wichita State University as the new head coach of the Shockers men's tennis team.

"It means a lot," the DeSoto High graduate said of becoming a head coach for the first time. "It's been my goal since college and I have lived my life accordingly, making a lot of sacrifices and changes."

But the changes may have just begun as Kowalik prepares to turn a middle-of-the-pack Shockers team into a national powerhouse.

DeSoto High graduate Kevin Kowalik, at the tender age of 27 will soon begin his tenure at Wichita State University's head tennis coach. Prior to this, Kowalik served as an assistant coach at Baylor University.

"I think it's a program waiting to blossom," Kowalik said. "I'm looking forward to taking the program where I want it to be."

Although he is only 27 years old and has never held a head coaching position before, Kowalik said he was not intimidated by the upcoming challenges.

"My assistant coaching jobs really compare and have trained me to be a better coach," he said. "I feel very confident taking over the program."

As well he should.

Kowalik, who took over at Wichita State for coach Bill Nichols, was an associate head coach at Baylor University in Texas for four years before accepting this

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job. The 1999 College Tennis AM's "National Assistant Coach-of-the-Year," helped bring the Baylor team that was last in its conference when he arrived to a national rank of No. 3 in 1999.

During his four-year career there, Kowalik helped bring the team to the "Elite 8" of the 1999 NCAA Tournament and second-place finishes in the 1998 and 1999 Big XII conference. The team also produced several stellar individual athletes including four All-Americans, one Big XII "Player-of-the-Year" and 11 All-Big XII selections.

"Kevin is very organized and has a great vision on how to build a program in a first-class manner," said Wichita State Athletic Director Jim Schaus in a written statement. "I am very excited about the future of our men's tennis program under his direction."

With practice beginning this week, Kowalik will begin serving up new ideas and strategies to build a successful program. His goal: Making the Division I Wichita State tennis team one of the top 30 teams in the nation.

But he sees that there is a long road ahead.

"It's an impossibility this year," Kowalik said. "This year I want to see a positive attitude at practice and at each match."

With that, Kowalik hopes to instill a community-like atmosphere on and off the court and would like the see the players establish goals for themselves and for the team.

"The attitude of the players and the overall tennis program will be changed," Kowalik said. "They just need some leadership. I think the team needs some direction."

Before taking the job at Baylor, Kowalik worked as a volunteer coach for the University of Kansas in 1995 and 1996 and has worked as a youth instructor for several years.

He also played at Johnson County Community College and Baker University for two years each.

Kowalik said he welcomed the opportunity to return to Kansas, where he spent much of his teenaged years and met his wife Kara, also a DeSoto High graduate, because it meant being near his family again.

"I'm pretty close to my family," Kowalik said. "Now they can come down and visit. That was part of my decision to go to Wichita."

Now that balls have begun to land in play for Kowalik and he has achieved one of his main goals in life, he has started to look toward the future and all the opportunities that lay ahead.

"Now I guess I need to set a new goal," Kowalik said. "You never know where it's going to take you. I think this is a job that I could be at for a long time."