The only tennis Lea Babb expected to see this spring was the infrequent match with a friend or maybe a few minutes of French Open action on television.

So how was it the Calais Middle School teacher wound up being Calais High’s varsity tennis coach for both the boys and girls teams?

“That’s a good question,” Babb said with a chuckle. “I’m still not sure what happened. The only experience I’ve had with tennis is purely recreational.”

What happened is Babb was approached about taking over the vacant coaching positions after former coach and school committee member Peter Leon saw her playing tennis with her niece one day last summer.

Leon passed Babb’s name on to Calais athletic director Tom Lynch, who was frantically searching for candidates. The rest is kind of a blur for Babb.

“Tom came to me with the worst-case scenario right off the bat and I said OK, if you don’t find anyone, I’ll take the girls until you find somebody better qualified,” Babb recalled. “Then Monday’s school committee meeting came.

“I was maybe like five minutes late, but when I got there, I found out I was coach of both teams. They must have really sped that through right after the pledge of allegiance and moment of silence!”

Babb wasn’t amused at first, but the idea gradually grew on her. She knew most of the kids on the team from their middle school days and knew they were a talented group.

“And it was a case where if I didn’t do it, there wouldn’t be any teams,” Babb said.

And so it was that a 35-year-old former elementary soccer, basketball, and softball coach borrowed some manuals from Leon and took her first tennis job.

Not only did the Blue Devils have winning seasons, both the boys and girls teams qualified for the Eastern Maine Class C tournament. The boys secured a No. 2 ranking and advanced to the semifinals before a loss to Orono ended their 10-3 season. The girls wound up 10-2 after a quarterfinal loss to Penquis.

“The season went very well,” said Babb. “I lacked in my technical coaching ability, but I had a pretty good rapport with the kids… and maybe I helped them mentally.”

That rapport was put to the test instantly as Babb called a preseason meeting to address concerns, answer questions, and dispel any illusions the 40 prospective players might have.

“I laid it on the line with them and told them not to expect any high-level instruction. I had to level with them,” Babb said. “And I also told them if they found anyone better, call me soon.”

That brutal honesty seemed to spur the teams’ seniors, who quickly realized if they were going to realize their postseason goals, they’d have to do more than just show up, practice, and play.

“It made us think `Geez, we might not even have a team this year, so we’d better pull together and help keep the others in line,’ ” said Tony DelMonaco, one of two seniors on the squad. “We wanted to help her out to help ourselves.”

And help they did, suggesting various drills and helping to instruct the younger, more inexperienced players on grips and techniques. They even suggested using a lot of running drills to help weed out the less-serious players.

“That told me they were a serious group because they knew they’d be running a lot, but they suggested it anyway,” Babb said.

According to DelMonaco, some of the practices were tougher than their matches. But it paid off in terms of conditioning.

Babb was also able to help her players out in various ways.

“I was able to rely a great deal on my seniors,” said Babb. “I think the fact I was the last option brought the leadership forward.”

That’s not to say Babb didn’t help her players out, too.

“I was surprised how things have gone, considering we didn’t even know if we’d have a coach,” DelMonaco said. “My first match, I’d never played singles before and I was real nervous, but Coach helped me calm down and get focused. After that, I was fine.”

Just as Babb has come to appreciate coaching, she’s going to have to give it up as she is taking a one-year leave of absence to visit her niece in California and take some graduate courses.

“I’m going to miss this a lot. The kids have been so great,” she said.