All in the Family - High school tennis

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ISHPEMING - Twenty years.

That's how long Tom and Cyndie Simula have been coaching Westwood High School tennis together.

"It wouldn't be easy for a lot of husbands and wives to coach together," Tom said. "But, in this instance, I think it has been great.

"We have disagreements. But not many arguments."

With 32 years of marriage aside from their coaching time together, Cyndie said athletics - and all the time they spend together preparing, at practice and at matches - has brought them together rather than pushed the two apart.

"Really, it's been really great for us," Cyndie said, "because we're probably closer than most married couples."

The two have coached both volleyball and tennis, but it's the latter that's been their true love.

Cyndie said they started coaching tennis with their daughters, Shannon and Crystal. From there, she and her husband picked up the boys' team, as well.

"Some boys on the Westwood team came to our door and asked us if we would coach them," Cyndie said, giggling softly. "Shannon and Crystal could beat the boys who were playing with the high school teams at the time, so they kind of figured we knew what we were talking about."

Currently, the duo coaches only the Patriots' boys team.

In their two decades of coaching, Tom and Cyndie have experienced a lot with the Westwood teams, including two Upper Peninsula Division 2 titles (2004 and 2005) and five peninsula second place finishes.

The duo also coached the Westwood boys to U.P. runner-up finishes twice, in Class A-B in 1996 and Class C-D in 1998.

And nearly all of those Westwood accomplishments are prominently displayed in the basement of the Simula home.

Friday, during a brief moment away from the Patriots match with the Gwinn Modeltowners, Tom gave a tour.

On one wall of the basement, each Westwood U.P. finals-winning team has a large team photo, along with individual photos of the Simula daughters during their U.P. Finals-winning years.

The remaining walls are covered with hundreds of 5-by-7 action photos of Westwood tennis players, some with successful high school careers, some not.

"These are priceless," Tom said, standing back to take a good look at the photos. "You can't put a price on these memories."

Rarely is there a photo of Tom or Cyndie. The basement is more an ode to what the players have accomplished rather than what the Simulas have accomplished as coaches.

One of the only photos of Tom shows just his back as he embraces a Westwood player who had won a peninsula title.

"I get choked up just talking about it," Tom said, attempting to tell the story behind the photo. "That's how much these mean to me."

Tom said the Simulas' basement is the place the Patriot net teams go for dinner before big meets and where the teams meet at the end of the year. The basement has even hosted a reunion.

"They're like family," Tom said of the players he's coached through the years.

Once he returned to the WHS courts Friday, Tom sat down with his soft-spoken wife and discussed the day's events, just like they've done for 20 years.

"I see things, he sees things," Cyndie said simply. "We talk about it and figure it out."