Coach relates with athletes as graduate

Since she started coaching in 1979, the NCAA has limited recruiting, the students have become more diverse, and the green balls they use may not be the same brand or bounce the same way, but women's tennis head coach Louise Gengler's '75 goal for each season has not changed a bit:

"Every year, we have wanted to win the Ivy League title."

But she went on to add that winning the Ivy League does not mean the same thing it used to.

"It's a little tricky what they call an Ivy Title," Gengler said. "Over the last 20 years, there's been some rewriting of history. When we used to go on our spring break trip, those were counted as scrimmages, so they didn't go on the record, but were later placed on there. Sometimes, we'd have round robins for the Ivy Champion. Before that, it was the Seven Sisters."

College athletics have changed immensely in 23 years, but every coach who has arrived at Jadwin Gym, Palmer Stadium or any other Old Nassau field has started the season with that same goal – they have wanted to win the Ivy League, the Seven Sisters, ECAC, EIC, or whatever the championship may have been.

In 1979, after a brief professional career in which she actually reached as high as No. 7 in the nation in doubles, Louise Gengler returned to her alma mater to coach the sport that she grew up playing on Long Island.

Coach Gengler came to the University as a tennis coach, but her top obligation was instructing the physical education courses, and afterwards to tend to the program.

Moreover, whereas she currently receives 200 letters from high school girls, all hoping to get involved with the program, it has not always been the same.

"Back then, maybe 20 or so would write me a year," Gengler said. "We didn't have a recruiting budget for years. On my own, I might have gone to some tournaments. Now, there's a much more sophisticated system and a year-round set of procedures that everyone is aware of and follows."

Also, the girls are not even the same as they used to be. Just as the average non-Varsity Princeton student has become more well-rounded, so has the average athlete.

Coach Gengler grew up on the courts of Long Island, playing with her older sister Marjory Gengler-Smith '73. In the late '60s, opportunities for elite high school women's tennis were not as common, so, to dig up competition, Louise, Marjory and their three younger sisters went to California to train at The Bishop School.

In 1969, when her sister, Marjory Gengler-Smith was looking at colleges, Princeton did not have a tennis team, and she went to Tulane. When, in 1971, Princeton formed a tennis team, Marjory transferred to the school that their father, Herbert Gengler '31, uncle, Arthur Gengler '33, and maternal grandfather John Logan '13 had attended.

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"My father went to Princeton. When Margie applied to college, Princeton wasn't an option, and she went to Tulane. But Princeton started taking transfers, so she went there. Because of my sister, I definitely started looking at Princeton."

Upon arrival, the pair, along with a strong core of players, dominated the northeast women's tennis scene, winning every match in a five-year span from 1971 to 1975.

But whereas Marjory always received the credit for being the first woman to win the white sweater with black "P" given to the captains of Ivy League champion teams, Coach Gengler carved out her own niche by playing two other sports — field hockey and ice hockey.

During their respective senior years, both were awarded the Otto C. Kleinbusch Award for being the top female athlete of high scholastic standing – the only sister duo to be given the award.

Their memories together extend past the college courts.

"I remember when we would play against each other in mixed doubles, the goal of the man was always to hit it hard at the woman to intimidate her. I was always afraid of the man hitting it to me, and she was more like 'I dare you to hit it to me.' She always had better reflexes."

When Coach Gengler finished her tennis career and also her platform tennis — a Northeastern mix of squash and tennis in which she actually won a couple national titles — career, she returned to Princeton and became one of a growing number of athletes returning to their alma mater to coach.

Other head coaches who also played at Princeton include men's basketball head coach John Thompson III '88, men's soccer head coach Jim Barlow '91, women's ice hockey head coach Jeff Kampersal '92, men's ice hockey head coach Len Quesnelle '88, men's squash head coach Bob Callahan '77 and softball head coach Maureen Davies-Barron '97.

"I think that going to Princeton has to help," Coach Gengler said. "I went through the same process of trying to do both, being a student and an athlete. I still remember the difficult part when I was at Princeton. I cared a lot about doing well as a student and also being an athlete."