~ The Central tennis coach will step down after 25 seasons.

A group of Central tennis players, parents and fans stood at the top of the stairs of the Woodsmill Racquet Club in St. Louis County on Saturday afternoon, waiting to greet Tigers coach Annette Slattery.

As she finally came into view, a round of applause began and grew for the beloved coach who had just finished coaching her final match for the team in an illustrious 25-year career.

"Coach Slattery had a very positive influence on both my daughters," said Michelle Ford, the mother of former Tigers standout Brett and current top player, Sarah. "I like the way she embraces team unity, and she is someone who means business out there. She is someone the players respected, and when you respect someone like that, you want to do your best for them."

And the best resulted in more than 300 wins in a career that began during the 1976-77 school year at Kennett. That team won all of one match while losing nine. It was the only losing season for Slattery, whose Kennett team turned things around with a 13-1 mark the next year.

Slattery moved to Central for the 1979-80 season. That team finished 7-5 -- the most losses any of her teams would suffer.

She also coached the Tigers boys for three years in the early 1980s and compiled a 33-6 record.

District domination

The Central girls won 19 district titles during Slattery's reign. She earned her 300th win as the Tigers coach Sept. 22 when the Tigers defeated Cor Jesu.

"I used to coach across the hall from Annette and got to know her well," Central athletic director Mark Ruark said. "She is a tremendously talented coach, as the numbers would show, but she is also a tremendous human being. We are going to have some big shoes to fill next year. She is a dandy."

"Coach Slattery is a tough coach," senior Sarah Ford said. "But she also allows us to have fun. You can tell that she loves us all and wants us to do well."

And almost all of her teams did very well indeed. She coached 11 teams that went undefeated through the regular season and took a team to the final four in 1995-96. This year's squad made it to the sectional round before falling to Nerinx Hall.

"Annette is an excellent tennis teacher, but she did make it fun for the girls as well," said Dale Pingel, father of Lindsey Pingel. "She is tough-minded but fair. It was a great experience overall to have Lindsey play under coach Slattery."

Slattery has developed the team concept in what is traditionally an individual sport.

"One of the things I am most proud of is watching the girls interact with each other and develop teamwork," Slattery said. "When you are on the court as a member of the Cape Central team, you are never by yourself."

Bond with players

Slattery said she is going to miss the interactions with her players as much as anything.

"Eliane Hess was one of the top players I have coached, and she was in town recently from Switzerland," Slattery said. "She made it a point to come to practice and actually played some doubles with Christen Edmonds against Sarah and Lindsey. She brought us some chocolates from Switzerland, and it was so much fun seeing her again. Those are the kinds of relations I have been able to develop though the years."

Slattery has a couple more days left in her coaching career, as she will be headed to the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield for the Class 2 state tournament, where she will coach Ford and Pingel in doubles Friday and hopefully Saturday.

She has been able to qualify an individual in either singles or doubles to the state tournament in each of her 25 years, which is an amazing bit of consistency.

"I know I am going to miss a lot of things when I am away," Slattery said. "But one of the things I will definitely miss is going to state. That is where you see the best tennis on the high school level."

Slattery has coached individuals when the state meet was in Columbia and at the Lake of the Ozarks before it moved to Springfield in 1993. Slattery vividly remembers a moment from one of her first years at the state tournament.

"An athletic trainer came up to me and she told me that I had the best job in the world being a tennis coach," Slattery said. "I can't disagree."