Times Have Changed In The College Tennis Recruiting World
Times Have Changed In The College Tennis Recruiting World
As the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl junior international tennis tournaments are rapidly approaching here in South Florida, I noticed a new trend in the way colleges are recruiting their student athletes in order for their universities to compete well with their competition. The last time I participated in the Orange Bowl was in 2001 and the competition was top notch with the likes of Janko Tipsarevic, Robin Soderling, Gilles Muller, Juan Monaco, and many other great players who were competing to win the prestigious event.
Todd Widom
Fast forward to the 2010 Orange Bowl, this was the year that I began my coaching career and I had a few players competing in the Orange Bowl. I saw a major difference in the way that colleges were trying to recruit players to their universities. When I played in 2001 and in prior years and I did not remember seeing many college coaches at these tournaments. When I attended my first Orange Bowl as a coach, I noticed swarms of college coaches making notes and recruiting, trying to pick up some great talent for their team. I was in shock at how many college coaches there were at this tournament.
There has been a lot of discussion about how foreign tennis players are taking college scholarships away from the American player. As expected the parents are very unhappy about this new trend; which in truth is not such a new trend. You see, these college coaches do not go to Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl to solely recruit American tennis players since they can do that during the school year or in the summer at the Super National tournaments, where all the top American tennis players participate. The college tennis coaches are at the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl tournaments to analyze and scout the foreign tennis players.
I have been blessed to go through all the levels of tennis from junior, to college, and on to the ATP Tour. I have been offered multiple college positions at some prestigious schools, and many of the players I competed with in amateur and professional tennis have become college coaches. Just like any other profession, if you do not have results, you run the risk of being fired and then you are out of a job. These are the stresses that the college coaches face when trying to assemble the best team they can, so that they can produce great results, and continue to be employed. This is no different from being a head coach in any of the other major sports fields in the United States. You hear it all the time in football, whether it is college or professional, about how the coaches are let go at the end of the season due to insufficient results. College tennis is no different.
The facts I am writing about have been verbalized over the past couple of years to the players I train on a daily basis. Whether you are American or not, the coaches are trying to field the best team they can, and they will definitely take a foreign player over an American due to the level these players can play at. College tennis is a business based on results, just as I run a business based on results. For the top-notch universities in this country, if they cannot sign the top American kids, they need to go the foreign route for their top couple of players just to compete with the other universities.
Tennis is a global sport. There are amazing tennis players all over the globe that would love to get that same scholarship that an American kid would love to be offered. The difference in whether you receive that scholarship or not, at your desired school of choice, will depend on your level of play and results.
They recruit foreign for several reasons. 1. they need to be competitive to keep their job. 2. The rules allow unlimited foreign recruiting. 3. The NCAA rules limiting practice and matches have made it increasingly tough to develop players. Before these rules restrictions some colleges excelled using the premise of out working the opposition. The ability to do that has been taken away by the NCAA. IMO the lesser recruiting of American players has hurt American tennis because USA kids don’t have the same incentive as they did to get a scholarship with so much scholarship going foreign. The NCAA rules have hurt American tennis because we used to have a lot of kids that matured a bit later but had access to college coaching, matches, strength training programs and all the facilities available at college. The ability to develop players will further be hindered by the recent adoption of no-add scoring and halting individual matches when the match has been decided.
In NCAA football and men’s basketball millions of dollars are on the line with the success of each team. Coaches are paid accordingly often making these coaches the highest paid person at the university. But in tennis there is not the same financial ramifications nor remuneration for the coach. SFB & BB coaches follow the rule. the higher the pay, the higher the risk. But with tennis the risk should not be the same as the pay is not the same. But the risk is the same due to pressures put on by athletic directors seeking to make themselves look good in the presidents cup. & again, who pays the price, the American junior player. I see ton’s of kids that could get a lot better in college if they had the chance. But I see that they can’t even walk on at small state universities due to the foreign player and to squad size caps due to gender equity squad size rules.
Ask yourself, how many kids are made and encouraged to study long, hard and early in their lives because the parent see the opportunity for higher education. Apply this to tennis and its now lack of opportunity for Americans and see how this had hurt USA tennis. Tennis may be a global game but NCAA athletics are an American sport. German & French club teams have a limit to the foreigners on their teams & so should we. the USTA has let college tennis down at every bend in the road: no add scoring, match reduction, practice reduction. And look where American tennis is. College tennis used to have future pros all over the place. no more. The NCAA and USTA are both groups that should be fostering sport. Instead both appear to be more of parasites that make their living of sports.
Excellent comments Ken. Some of the rules in NCAA do hamper a child who is going to college to progress whether it is to become a professional or even make the squad or just progress through the lineup to higher levels. It’s very simple. From a college coach’s perspective, the American junior needs to be much higher level for these teams to compete at the level they would like to compete at. I could write a novel on why our American children are not at a sufficient level to be recruited by many universities. Unfortunately, this is the reality at the moment in this country. It’s not the college coach’s fault, it’s the fault of many different aspects for the American junior tennis player.
I don’t think the college coach minds competing at a level a bit further away from a us open qualifying level. they just want to compete and be competetive. I know full well what you are talking about regarding the attitudes of American tennis players and why we are such a mediocre tennis nation now. in the 80’s when the usa was kicking butt, it was not unusual for a college player to play over 100 matches in a school year and all of them best of three sets. that is not happening now. IMO if the colleges were giving the opportunity to strive for a scholarship more boys would be busting fanny to get one. the usa women’s tennis is ahead of the men’s game. women’s teams have 8 fulls and mens 4.5. The carrot is not there to entice the kids starting early. In the 80’s boys were coming to school with a 65 in the nation ranking and making semis of the us open doubles a few years after graduating and they were off the radar of usa tennis. now that kid would be a major usa player but the development is not happening due to the retarded ncaa rules. ncaa tennis could and should be leading but it is dragging. There are a lot of usa kids out there that could have the dream if it was preached more from the high ups and if they had a ladder.
Your last sentence is right on target. Don’t know much about NCAA, but USTA is no help that’s for sure.
The really worrying part is the fact that college tennis programs are becoming fewer and fewer in a global sport.
Rather than having people criticize coaches scout all over the globe (and thus recruit internationally), college tennis should identify the origin of this problem.
Limiting the number of foreigners on teams doesn’t fix it, it’s just a way of dealing with it.
Why do tennis programs close down? And what can be done to prevent this development and in turn grow college tennis again? After all, if the number of programs were kept at historical levels, there would be enough scholarship opportunities for all talented athletes, no matter their nationality.
This article by the Washington Post (“College athletic departments are paying themselves to lose money”) offers some real interesting thoughts on this: http://wapo.st/1PceHMi
Nice post Smarthlete. The real question is, why should universities keep their college tennis teams? Some universities are doing a great job by filling the stands and promoting the team within the community. It takes lots of effort on everyone’s part to grow the booster programs and to promote college tennis. This needs to be a nationwide effort. Since tennis is a non-revenue sport, the coaches and athletic departments need to hustle to have sufficient funds for their non-revenue sports or these specific sports run the chance of being taken away.
Tennis is a global sport and I’d like to think the United States is still the land of opportunity. With that said, let the best student-athletes play regardless of their country of origin (provided we level the application process). IMO, establishing quotas or adding restrictions on international players only dilutes the talent pool and hampers development. If we want more American players in college tennis, then we just have to get better.
Couldn’t have said it any better George.
College tennis is being dropped at a very fast rate. it used to be the most played sport in college and that is no more. I think it is harder to drop it when you would get complaints from local parents, local HS coaches,local clubs, and local newspapers. But when your state schools team is all foreign what do the locals lose?