Men's Tennis

[spiderstudent17]

Thought I'd start a thread for Men' tennis. Signed Bell, a 4 start recruit.



Coach Barrick has done a good job with recruiting since his arrival, considering the limited scholarships (1 I believe?) we offer.

 

[32counter]

Bullis Prep,Potomac,MD product

Nice program with mulitcourt bubble.1st Team Washington All Metro.

https://www.tennisrecruiting.net/player.asp?id=763493

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethes...letes-receive-washington-post-all-met-honors/

 

[Ferrum Spider]

Thought I'd start a thread for Men' tennis. Signed Bell, a 4 start recruit.

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Coach Barrick has done a good job with recruiting since his arrival, considering the limited scholarships (1 I believe?) we offer.

Correct. Were also the only school in the A10 that doesn't offer the full allotment of schollies. Pretty impressive considering were almost always in the top 4 of the A10. We have a pretty nice ROI considering what $ we put into it. Ben Johnson and now Barrick are good coaches.

Would love to see them with a full allotment and an indoor facility. Neither will happen but can always dream.

 

[spiderstudent17]

Correct. Were also the only school in the A10 that doesn't offer the full allotment of schollies. Pretty impressive considering were almost always in the top 4 of the A10. We have a pretty nice ROI considering what $ we put into it. Ben Johnson and now Barrick are good coaches.

Would love to see them with a full allotment and an indoor facility. Neither will happen but can always dream.

Women's tennis has the full amount of allotted scholarships I believe. Would love to see the Men's team also have that, but don't know how it'll balance out with Title IX. It would be nice see us become stronger in tennis on a national scale. Tennis is one of the few sports, where recruiting a few absolutely great players can change the trajectory of the team. Our new court renovations look really nice. The school has a temporary bubble that covers some of the courts, but agree that I would love to see a more permanent indoor facility and club house. However, I'm sure coach Barrick would like having more allotted scholarships right now to work with. Richmond has a good make-up to be good at tennis. I'd put tennis up there with golf and baseball as the top sports to focus on outside the big 3 (basketball, football, lacrosse).

 

[spiderstudent17]

Ranked #123 in the country for his class

 

[Ferrum Spider]

Women's tennis has the full amount of allotted scholarships I believe. Would love to see the Men's team also have that, but don't know how it'll balance out with Title IX. It would be nice see us become stronger in tennis on a national scale. Tennis is one of the few sports, where recruiting a few absolutely great players can change the trajectory of the team. Our new court renovations look really nice. The school has a temporary bubble that covers some of the courts, but agree that I would love to see a more permanent indoor facility and club house. However, I'm sure coach Barrick would like having more allotted scholarships right now to work with. Richmond has a good make-up to be good at tennis. I'd put tennis up there with golf and baseball as the top sports to focus on outside the big 3 (basketball, football, lacrosse).

Between Women's Swimming and Men's Tennis, no coaches have done more with less then Barany and Johnson (Now Barrick)

Asked Johnson what he would rather have, world class indoor facility of full allotment and without hesitation he said scholarships. Key in tennis is recruiting over the last class you had (Like many sports) and have enough depth on the back end. Its the ultimate team sport in that your best player can only get you so many points so you have to have a full lineup. When I played in college, we could of had Roger Federer on our team and we still would of not won conference.
However, if Michael Vick was on our football or Lebron James in basketball our teams would of dominated despite the lack of talent around him.

When I coached HS we were loaded at the top 4 but left a lot to be desired a 5&6 singles and 3 doubles, ran into current Spider Joe Nardinis team in states and they're depth is what ultimately what pushed them past us, we had no chance at the bottom end of the lineup and it cost us in states. Imagine this could be a pretty elite program considering our ability to attract international students. Would love to see us get a facility like Emorys (Google Woodruff athletic center) which would help all of our non-revenue sports.

 

[spiderstudent17]

Between Women's Swimming and Men's Tennis, no coaches have done more with less then Barany and Johnson (Now Barrick)

Asked Johnson what he would rather have, world class indoor facility of full allotment and without hesitation he said scholarships. Key in tennis is recruiting over the last class you had (Like many sports) and have enough depth on the back end. Its the ultimate team sport in that your best player can only get you so many points so you have to have a full lineup. When I played in college, we could of had Roger Federer on our team and we still would of not won conference.
However, if Michael Vick was on our football or Lebron James in basketball our teams would of dominated despite the lack of talent around him.

When I coached HS we were loaded at the top 4 but left a lot to be desired a 5&6 singles and 3 doubles, ran into current Spider Joe Nardinis team in states and they're depth is what ultimately what pushed them past us, we had no chance at the bottom end of the lineup and it cost us in states. Imagine this could be a pretty elite program considering our ability to attract international students. Would love to see us get a facility like Emorys (Google Woodruff athletic center) which would help all of our non-revenue sports.

Completely agree on all fronts. While upgrading tennis facilities even more would be a wonderful asset, being able to have a full-allotment of scholarships would have the most immediate impact. Also completely agree with depth. Tennis is both a team sport but on an individual level where the performance of one person doesn't impact the play or performance of the others. This means we need depth across all singles and doubles to have a chance. Unlike basketball where its a team sport, but the performance of one person can dictate the outcome of the game. That's why depth is incredibly important and having full-scholarships can help with that.

VCU has had a lot of success with international players. Let's see if we go that route. I think Coach Barrick is a good fit for our program and like what he has done so far. Wonder what the long-term strategic plan is with tennis. Tennis, like golf, is a sport where recruiting several key players can change the trajectory of a program. You might have more to say to this than I do, but a sport like basketball or football has a lot of coaching involved. Look at Wake Forest. Manning has a bunch of top 100 recruits that are more talented than we are, but is a terrible coach and we were able to win. With sports like tennis or golf, coaching is involved but it seems to a much lesser extent. In other words, in basketball coaching can make up for talent gaps between teams because of the strategies of the game. In a sport like tennis, where it is on a one-on-one, who is more talented than the other basis, its hard for a team with only 2-3 star recruits to beat a team with 5 star, blue chip recruits. Yet in basketball, baseball, or football we see these upsets all the time. Don't know if I articulated that well, but the point is that recruiting more talented players from High School has more of an impact in sports like tennis, golf, cross-country, etc. because it is such an individualized sport, whereas other sports like football, baseball, basketball, etc. have a more intertwined, strategic component to it so the more "higher recruited" team isn't the one that always wins.

 

[Ferrum Spider]

VCU has had a lot of success with international players. Let's see if we go that route. I think Coach Barrick is a good fit for our program and like what he has done so far. Wonder what the long-term strategic plan is with tennis. Tennis, like golf, is a sport where recruiting several key players can change the trajectory of a program. You might have more to say to this than I do, but a sport like basketball or football has a lot of coaching involved. Look at Wake Forest. Manning has a bunch of top 100 recruits that are more talented than we are, but is a terrible coach and we were able to win. With sports like tennis or golf, coaching is involved but it seems to a much lesser extent. In other words, in basketball coaching can make up for talent gaps between teams because of the strategies of the game. In a sport like tennis, where it is on a one-on-one, who is more talented than the other basis, its hard for a team with only 2-3 star recruits to beat a team with 5 star, blue chip recruits. Yet in basketball, baseball, or football we see these upsets all the time. Don't know if I articulated that well, but the point is that recruiting more talented players from High School has more of an impact in sports like tennis, golf, cross-country, etc. because it is such an individualized sport, whereas other sports like football, baseball, basketball, etc. have a more intertwined, strategic component to it so the more "higher recruited" team isn't the one that always wins.

Very much so. A good competent coach can absolutely change a program, but it typically involved bringing in already skilled players to excel. Not that we were good, but my college coach never played the sport (Was a wrestler) but managed to have a better record then the coach that preceded him despite that guy playing at Georgia because he knew how to recruit and we as players managed ourselves. A better example would be NC Wesleyan. They haven't lost a conference match in over 10 years and remember when we were playing them in they had a girl on their mens team and barely were able to field a team. They hired a full time coach who went to Europe and brought back over a dozen europeans who could start for many D1 schools. They haven't lost a conference tennis match since I was in college and I graduated in 2009. Today they're loaded with Sven's and Igors. Also being a coach of a tennis (Specifically HS) team is different because many of the kids you coach (If your team is good at least) come from country clubs with different pros many of whom basically tell the player to disregard the coach as a lot of HS team coaches are just teachers looking for a stipend.

Individually upsets happen all the time. However, as a team, its very difficult to pull off an upset. I mean we had the Dunbar brothers and still couldnt get over the top because our depth and lack of scholarships(This isnt a criticism). Remember when we almost beat UVA last year in tennis? Thats the closest weve ever come to beating them since Ive been following the program, maybe 32 has better knowledge on that then I do. As a coach you cant just call timeout or sub out a player, they're are up to 6 matches going on at once and you only have one set of eyes. Your best chance at pulling upsets come in the doubles lineups because you can create mismatches but its up to the players to execute and that comes from going over what you want to do in practice. As a team I don't ever recall being part of one that pulled a major upset or lost a match we were assured to win be it on the HS or college level. It happens but is very rare. Best chance to pull an upset is to stack the lineup but that to me is about the most classless thing you can do in sports. There are coaches who have no problem doing that.

 

[spiderstudent17]

Very much so. A good competent coach can absolutely change a program, but it typically involved bringing in already skilled players to excel. Not that we were good, but my college coach never played the sport (Was a wrestler) but managed to have a better record then the coach that preceded him despite that guy playing at Georgia because he knew how to recruit and we as players managed ourselves. A better example would be NC Wesleyan. They haven't lost a conference match in over 10 years and remember when we were playing them in they had a girl on their mens team and barely were able to field a team. They hired a full time coach who went to Europe and brought back over a dozen europeans who could start for many D1 schools. They haven't lost a conference tennis match since I was in college and I graduated in 2009. Today they're loaded with Sven's and Igors. Also being a coach of a tennis (Specifically HS) team is different because many of the kids you coach (If your team is good at least) come from country clubs with different pros many of whom basically tell the player to disregard the coach as a lot of HS team coaches are just teachers looking for a stipend.

Individually upsets happen all the time. However, as a team, its very difficult to pull off an upset. I mean we had the Dunbar brothers and still couldnt get over the top because our depth and lack of scholarships(This isnt a criticism). Remember when we almost beat UVA last year in tennis? Thats the closest weve ever come to beating them since Ive been following the program, maybe 32 has better knowledge on that then I do. As a coach you cant just call timeout or sub out a player, they're are up to 6 matches going on at once and you only have one set of eyes. Your best chance at pulling upsets come in the doubles lineups because you can create mismatches but its up to the players to execute and that comes from going over what you want to do in practice. As a team I don't ever recall being part of one that pulled a major upset or lost a match we were assured to win be it on the HS or college level. It happens but is very rare. Best chance to pull an upset is to stack the lineup but that to me is about the most classless thing you can do in sports. There are coaches who have no problem doing that.

Basically to be successful in a sport like tennis or golf at the collegiate level, we need to fully-fund the sports and hire a great recruiter first (and being a good coach is a bonus) so we can have depth among the roster. Facilities and winning pedigree helps, but as a non-revenue sport, offering students a hefty scholarship to a top school like we are is our best selling point.

Any word from the athletic department on whether there is a plan to fully-fund men's and women's tennis/golf?

 

[Ferrum Spider]

Basically to be successful in a sport like tennis or golf at the collegiate level, we need to fully-fund the sports and hire a great recruiter first (and being a good coach is a bonus) so we can have depth among the roster. Facilities and winning pedigree helps, but as a non-revenue sport, offering students a hefty scholarship to a top school like we are is our best selling point.

Any word from the athletic department on whether there is a plan to fully-fund men's and women's tennis/golf?

A little different at the D1 level. You need a guy who can coach to in addition to recruiting. High level players aren't going to respect someone who can't improve their game. Johnson was one of those guys (He could recruit amazingly for what he had) I think Barrick can be to.

Don't expect tennis to be fully funded anytime soon unless Quelly says so. Even if you have an alum and offer to endow the scholarships you have to find 3.5 more for another women's teams (I believe all the womens teams scholarships are fully allocated?). Womens tennis is fully funded IIRC, not sure on golf.

 

[spiderstudent17]

A little different at the D1 level. You need a guy who can coach to in addition to recruiting. High level players aren't going to respect someone who can't improve their game. Johnson was one of those guys (He could recruit amazingly for what he had) I think Barrick can be to.

Don't expect tennis to be fully funded anytime soon unless Quelly says so. Even if you have an alum and offer to endow the scholarships you have to find 3.5 more for another women's teams (I believe all the womens teams scholarships are fully allocated?). Womens tennis is fully funded IIRC, not sure on golf.

I know that women's swimming and diving doesn't have fully scholarship and I think women's soccer is the same. There are definitely other women's teams we can allot more scholarships to if we decide to endow men's tennis. I think women's tennis is fully funded if I remember correctly also. If that's the case I'm surprised we haven't done as well in women's tennis as I would've thought. Wesselink is at his 28th year at the program but hasn't moved the needle much lately though there was a stretch in the early 2000's where we won 9 conference championships (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)..

 

[urfan1]

Men's Tennis won today 4-3 at Navy

 

[32counter]

 

[32counter]