Whitehall will have two more new additions to their fall coaching ranks when the teams get under way in a few weeks.

Sean Devine and George Cowitch will take over the girls tennis and girls volleyball programs, respectively. While Cowitch is a familiar face having coached the boys volleyball team the last nine years, Devine begins his inaugural season this year at Whitehall.

Devine replaces former head coach Meredith Kester, a former district doubles champion. She led the team to a District XI title in 2010, the first team title in girls tennis for the Zephyrs.

Cowitch’s résumé includes a 2010 District 11 championship in boys volleyball, and he’s eager to see if he can transfer that same success. He takes over for Laura Hausman, who spent one year as the Zephyrs head coach.

Cowitch is also no stranger to the girls program, spending his first season coaching volleyball as an assistant to Judy Harakal. Cowitch was also the girls junior varsity coach last season.

Cowitch said he wants to build on what Hausman began last season. He also wants to incorporate some of the same offseason training regimen that he’s brought to the boys program, including weight training and open gyms that will increase their exposure to the game.

“We have some really good players in this program, and we just need that little extra to catch up to the other teams in the league,” said Cowitch.

He believes the success he’s had with the boys the last nine seasons can carry over to the girls program.

“I think it can,” said Cowitch. “We have a philosophy in the way we like to do things. We like to play a lot of kids. The players obviously like that, and like I said, we have the athletes here. We just have to fine tune them a little bit.”

He’ll inherit a program that finished 8-10 overall and 7-9 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

Devine, a 2010 graduate of Parkland High School, recently took over for Kester and is in the process of getting his feet wet as a first-year coach. He’s a former nationally ranked player who is currently the head pro at the Northampton Country Club. He was also an assistant coach for the Freedom High School’s boys team, who won the District 11 team title in May.

Devine said that he’ll be looking to incorporate the same mindset that has made the Trojans so successful over the years.

“I come from a program that has a rich culture of winning,” said Devine. “I think that’s what I really learned from Parkland and how to build a good culture of winning. That’s all through hard work and dedication.”

Devine said it was important to get the team working since they didn’t have an offseason fitness program to prepare them for the season. He said the reason his alma mater stands out is because they play year round, constantly working on their game; whereas other teams are picking up their rackets at the beginning of the season.

“It’s creating a whole culture here is really the key,” he said.

Devine will inherit a team that has a solid foundation led by Eiman Nazif who made it to the semifinals in singles competition at last year’s D-11 tourney.

“I’m definitely stepping into a good team,” said Devine. “There’s some good girls, some good players. They made districts last year and were taken out by a very strong team in East Stroudsburg South, so I think this team is really on the cusp.”

Devine believes that if they implement a strong offseason program along with a hefty amount of drills, they can be district contenders.