Few things in life remain the same over a long period of time, and that includes success in sports, especially in small enrollment schools. The Tri-Eastern Conference is an athletic conference that has parity in most sports. The nine-member league comprises Eastern Indiana schools and is home to four Wayne County schools: Centerville, Hagerstown, Lincoln and Northeastern. All of the member schools have had success in various sports over the years, but that success can be difficult to maintain long term.
All of the TEC member schools are considered small enrollment schools and are therefore subject to cycles. Great players graduate, good players graduate, hardworking average, overachieving players graduate, and everything recycles. A current example of how quickly things can change is the Centerville boys basketball team. Four seasons ago, Centerville did not win a game. This season, the Bulldogs won 20 games and played in the regional.
There have been some remarkable extended winning streaks in conference play, but they are a rarity.
The Union County Lady Patriots, under former head coach Jenny Moster, once won 41 consecutive volleyball matches in regular season TEC play. Several years later, the Hagerstown Tigers, under current head coach Brian Dale, broke the Patriots’ record for consecutive regular season TEC volleyball match wins with 45. The Winchester boys basketball team, under former head coach Chip Mehaffey, holds the record for most consecutive TEC regular season wins in boys basketball games with 46. Records are made to be broken, but it is accurate to say that neither the Winchester boys basketball streak nor the Hagerstown volleyball streak are in any immediate danger. As impressive as those record streaks are, they pale in comparison to the accomplishments of the Centerville Lady Bulldog tennis team under the direction of head coach Randy Ecker. As we enter the 2024-25 season for girls tennis, a look back at the Centerville program is in order.
The Lady Bulldogs return five players from their undefeated Tri-Eastern Conference championship and sectional championship team from a year ago. The current Lady Bulldog TEC regular season match win streak is 25. Prior to a regular-season loss to Lincoln during the 2021 season (which they avenged during the TEC tournament) the Lady Bulldogs compiled an incredible 81-match TEC regular season win streak. The program has won 14 consecutive TEC titles (the last 13 under Ecker) and have won the last three sectional championships. They have compiled a 106-1 record in TEC regular season matches over their last 107 matches!
As impressive as the TEC 81 consecutive regular-season match win streak the Lady Bulldogs put together is, it is not a Centerville high school tennis school record. That is held by the Centerville boys program, who once put together a TEC regular season match streak of 87 consecutive wins under coach Ecker.
Randy Ecker has been the Centerville boys tennis coach for 45 years and has been the Centerville girls tennis coach for 13 years. When Ecker started coaching, he did not have a tennis background. When he started his journey, he read books on tennis, watched films on tennis and took tennis lessons. Ecker studied his craft, and he has been able to consistently teach the skills necessary to his players to compete at the highest level. Ecker, who began his tennis teaching journey as an unknown, is now known statewide and ranks among the most successful coaches in Indiana high school history.
Ecker has helped build his program’s success by offering summer camps and clinics to students from kindergarten to high school in the Centerville school district. The two-week sessions commonly have 100 or more participants. The sessions are separated into groups for the elementary, junior high and high school students.
During his career, Ecker has had assistant coaches who are family members who shared his passion for the sport. His first assistant was his son Brandon Ecker, who now serves as the athletic director at Mount Vernon (Fortville) High School. His daughter Courtney has also served as his assistant, and when she left the position after the 2014 season, his wife Susie assumed the role of assistant coach and continues to serve in that capacity. Susie now officially holds the title of assistant coach, but Randy acknowledges that she has been a big help to him and the program from day one.
A commitment to the physically demanding sport of tennis is not for everyone, but Ecker has found that girls are more likely to work in the offseason to improve their skills.
Ecker would like to see a change that would make tennis a class sport, but he doesn’t expect it to happen. The current IHSAA format of putting all schools in one class, without considering enrollment size, puts small enrollment schools like Centerville at a disadvantage in state tournament play. At the sectional level, area schools compete with comparable programs and, in some years, at the regional level, but 4A enrollment schools dominate at the semi-state and state level.
Ecker is confident that the Lady Bulldogs will have another great year. Centerville will return their No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles players from last year’s team. The No. 2 doubles team, who won the conference last season, also returns and will likely be elevated to No. 1 doubles this spring. Ecker also has a solid core of players fighting for a spot on the No. 2 doubles team.
Expect the Lady Bulldogs’ success under the direction of Randy and Susie Ecker to continue.
A version of this article appeared in the April 2 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.