Go ahead. Ask Dick Wedel how long he has been coach of the Lawrence High tennis teams. Expect a blank stare in return.

How in the world is he supposed to answer that question, when he just isn’t exactly sure of the answer?

“Well …” Wedel says, trying hard to sort through all the teams, players and memories. “I think it’s real close to 50 seasons, boys and girls.”

That’d be 25 years, or about 1978. Close enough?

“Yeah,” Wedel said. “I know I was coaching in ’80. I think I started in ’78 or ’79.”

And since then, Wedel has blossomed into one of the city’s true treasures. He is a mentor to many, a father figure to many more, and a friend to most everyone that’s simply said “hello” to him through the years.

He’s quick to tease one of his own players, but even quicker to compliment them on a job well done.

After every one of his player’s matches, win or lose, Wedel is the first person on the scene, ready to slap a high-five and tell them what they did right.

Need a good laugh? Just hang around long enough. Eventually, you’ll hear a fishing tale that’ll have you in stitches.

“I caught this six-pound bass using a little deer hair mouse with a chartreuse tail,” he said once, shaking his head. “What in the world was that fish thinking?”

Need another good story? No one has a larger stash. Try this dandy, about a former player who seemed to prefer standing still over moving during his matches.

“I told him to hustle, go for the balls, get out of no-man’s land,” Wedel said. “His reply was classic: “But coach, if I do that, I’ll get tired!’

“It’s a great joke, but he wasn’t kidding, unfortunately.”

Welcome to Dick Wedel’s world. Never a dull moment.

Lawrence High tennis coach Dick Wedel watches the Lions play against Shawnee Mission East. Wedel has coached tennis at LHS for quite a while, and has become a mentor to many a Lion. LHS

The past

Go ahead. Ask Dick Wedel to reminisce about the gifted ones he helped make champions. Expect him to be swept away in reflection.

Wedel’s tenure at Lawrence High — however long it might be — has been filled with greatness in all sports. Tennis has been no exception.

Two state championship teams — the girls in 1989 and the boys in 1995 — as well as six singles champs and two pairs of doubles champs highlight Wedel’s career.

Kara Brady, who won the Kansas singles titles in 1987 and 1989, is the only player to win state twice while at LHS. A pair of four-time state champs made one-year pit stops at Lawrence, including Albin Polonyi in 1992, and Tariq Butt in 1994, a player Wedel remembers for having “the biggest forehand anyone has ever seen in Kansas high school tennis.”

The memories go on and on. And with the memories come stories. And with the stories come sure laughs.

Take the 1988 girls team. The favorite to win state. A sure thing if there ever was one.

They go down to Wichita, only to take second place. Brady took second place, too, her only loss in three years of high school tennis.

“On the way home, we stopped at one of those pie places — Tippin’s or something,” Wedel said. “And we all drowned our sorrows in a giant piece of pie.”

Must’ve worked. They won state the very next year.

“I’ve had wonderful players over the years,” Wedel said. “I just hope that I didn’t do anything to mess them up.”

The present

Go ahead. Ask Dick Wedel about those witty team T-shirts the girls are wearing this fall, with the letters “W. W. D. W. D?” on the back. Expect a good story in return.

“What would Dick Wedel do?” he explains.

“What did Dick Wedel do,” he’s asked, “to spark the idea for those?”

So Wedel willingly dives into another anecdote, this time from when he retired in 2002 after 35 years of teaching at the Lawrence Alternative High School. Wedel’s longtime parking spot was passed on to Bob Hubert, a science teacher at the school — but not before Wedel gave him a little piece of advice.

“I said every time you park at that spot, you have to ask, ‘What would Dick Wedel do?'” Wedel says with a grin. “Somehow, the girls found out.”

The girls probably wouldn’t have, except that those now-popular initials were painted — rather largely — in white letters on the blacktop of Wedel’s former spot. April Merino-Brammell, one of Lawrence’s top tennis players, found out about the parking space from her boyfriend, who plays soccer at LHS and practices at Holcom Park by the Alternative School. He saw the decorated spot and immediately told Merino-Brammell.

Presto. A 2003 team slogan.

“I knew right then,” Merino-Brammell said, “that we had to do it.”

So now, the LHS girls tennis team wears the shirts to practice, to matches, to football games, to school. And while they’re not for sale at your local sporting goods store, the team members aren’t the only ones flaunting the now-trendy Chesty Lions gear.

“Actually,” Wedel said, “my wife wears one.”

Wedel’s wife, Diane, is a former South Junior High math teacher who, like her husband, has warmed the hearts of most everyone she taught. Many of this year’s upperclassmen on the girls tennis team had Diane for class. She retired a couple years ago.

“We just love them both.” Merino-Brammell said.

Wedel and his wife, like most teachers, are touched by seeing those they taught have found success down the road.

“It’s a great feeling to walk down the street and see somebody that used to play for you,” Wedel said. “Watching them grow up and mature and make good choices — it’s so nice to see that.”

The future

Go ahead. Ask Dick Wedel when he’s going to retire from coaching. Don’t expect him to give you a timeline.

He’s not about to restrict himself by doing that.

All he knows is that he’ll be coaching this year. After that is anybody’s guess.

Lawrence High tennis means so much to Dick Wedel — but it’s not everything.

Every year, Dick and Diane head to Montana for the summer. He plays tennis, he fishes (his other passion), and he relaxes before heading back for another year of high school tennis.

That’s one of the problems with the demands of coaching on a retired man.

“It cuts your summer short,” Wedel said. “The fishing in Montana gets really good, and I have to come home.”

Still, coaching tennis seems to stick to him. Long after calling it a career at LAHS, when he’s retired and supposed to be free from obligations, Dick Wedel is at the Lawrence High tennis courts teaching lessons on both tennis and life.

“All these years, I’ve really enjoyed the kids,” Wedel said. “I had the opportunity after I finished teaching to keep coaching, and I’m glad I did.”

“Also,” he said, a grin escaping him, “I need the money.”

One more laugh

Quick story: Dick Wedel watched one of his seniors, Rachelle Saathoff, as she played singles against Olathe South’s Brittany Klaassen earlier this season.

On one play, Saathoff approached the net, and drilled a volley for a well-done, easy point.

“I taught her that one,” Wedel sarcastically boasts to a couple of old friends that stopped by to watch.

“Uh huh,” one of them said. “You taught her everything, right?”

“No,” Wedel replies. “The double faults she learned on her own.”

Welcome to Dick Wedel’s world. Never a serious moment.

And that’s OK.

“He’s always teasing us,” Saathoff says. “He makes everyone laugh.”

Go ahead. Ask Dick Wedel how much he’s enjoying life. Expect a big grin in return.

“I’ve been lucky,” Wedel said. “I’ve just been so lucky.”