Best/Worst College Coaches at the Top Academic Division 1 Schools
I realize that this subject has been tangentially discussed in threads that discussed the best/worst academies or the best college programs/coaches that produce professional players, but I would like to narrow the discussion. I know that there are a lot of knowledgeable college players and their parents so I was hoping that you experts can help me out.
I am trying to advise a boy in high school whose USTA national ranking tends to range from 40 to 100 for his age. I would like a list of which college coaches you would recommend and which ones to avoid. However, please realize the criteria that is important to us. The ones we would like to avoid are the ones who: (1) Can't be trusted. The types of guys who will, for example, screw you over on your scholarship from year to year if it is convenient for them because they're trying to make room for new recruits coming in. Who wouldn't have any qualms or empathy for the kid whose scholarship he didn't renew from year to year even if the kid did nothing wrong. or (2) The type of coach that is not good at developing players and helping them improve. Either the coach doesn't have any practical knowledge about tennis, just can't teach or doesn't have the interest in helping players get better and doesn't know how to help them practice the right way.
The ones I would be interested in are the those who at least are good people, can be trusted, won't screw kids out of scholarships and lie to them, truly care about the players and will help them improve.
I don't give a crap about how good the coach is at recruiting (frankly, that's more of a negative for me) or how successful his team is.
I am also only interested in Divison 1 mens tennis team coaches. They don't have to be the highest ranked teams. I'm most interested in schools who are usually NOT in the top 15 of the NCCA with solid academic reputations like the Ivy Leagues, Duke, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, etc. and these could be solid state schools like Cal, Michigan, UVA, UNC, Cal, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, etc. I realize that some of these schools are ranked high depending on the year.
Related to this, I would love to know which schools are best and worst at supporting the tennis athlete in allowing him to reschedule exams, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help
I am trying to advise a boy in high school whose USTA national ranking tends to range from 40 to 100 for his age. I would like a list of which college coaches you would recommend and which ones to avoid. However, please realize the criteria that is important to us. The ones we would like to avoid are the ones who: (1) Can't be trusted. The types of guys who will, for example, screw you over on your scholarship from year to year if it is convenient for them because they're trying to make room for new recruits coming in. Who wouldn't have any qualms or empathy for the kid whose scholarship he didn't renew from year to year even if the kid did nothing wrong. or (2) The type of coach that is not good at developing players and helping them improve. Either the coach doesn't have any practical knowledge about tennis, just can't teach or doesn't have the interest in helping players get better and doesn't know how to help them practice the right way.
The ones I would be interested in are the those who at least are good people, can be trusted, won't screw kids out of scholarships and lie to them, truly care about the players and will help them improve.
I don't give a crap about how good the coach is at recruiting (frankly, that's more of a negative for me) or how successful his team is.
I am also only interested in Divison 1 mens tennis team coaches. They don't have to be the highest ranked teams. I'm most interested in schools who are usually NOT in the top 15 of the NCCA with solid academic reputations like the Ivy Leagues, Duke, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, etc. and these could be solid state schools like Cal, Michigan, UVA, UNC, Cal, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, etc. I realize that some of these schools are ranked high depending on the year.
Related to this, I would love to know which schools are best and worst at supporting the tennis athlete in allowing him to reschedule exams, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help
Tags: academic, athletes, coaches, college, colleges, improvement, in, schools, support, that
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ini ghidirmic on
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I guess that you have your answer, 5.0 player. "lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'intrate." abandon all hope...
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Permalink Reply by 5.0Player on
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I see your point Ini. But my post also asks for worst coaches, so even if the field is negative out there one would think that at least someone would have some negative, if not positive information to share.
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Permalink Reply by Marcia Frost on
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This is a very personal decision. No one but you can decide which coach is best for you. Although, I can understand your need to get as much information as possible on the process, getting anonymous opinions is not the way to go.
The best way to find honest information that you are looking for is current and former players. If your son is in his junior year or earlier, visit as many schools "unofficially" as you can. Use every opportunity during the year to speak to current players and past players. When he is a high school senior, he should absolutely schedule his five official visits. At that time he can full opportunity to get to know the players and coach, as well as what the players think of the coach.
And my No. 1 piece of advice to all potential recruits -- do not pick a college JUST because of the coach. It is important to like/get along with the coach, but your child must say to himself -- if this coach is not here, do I still want to go to this school?
I could go on all day about the recruiting process, but I can't stress enough that you need to speak to people (or at least get responses/emails that you know are coming from people who have real information). Rumors are rampant on the web.
Good luck and make sure your son is registered with the new USTA database:
http://workspace.usta.com/wps/portal/UserRegistration?group=PD_Coll...
Marcia
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Thanks for your advice, Marcia. I wil certainly take it. Don't worry; we plan on doing all of our due diligence including visiting campus etc. The player is not a senior yet so we still have a lot time. We will get as much "real" information that we can.
However, a few points to consider about why I think comments on this board would be useful. First of all, there are SO many colleges out there that we would appreciate any information early on which could help us at least narrow the list down to about 20 schools at the most before we even start considering scheduling visits. We can't visit 50 schools to get direct information so I'm hoping to narrow it down by collecting some preliminary information on this board and through other sources. Gathering some information now can only help this process. We will take all comments with a grain of salt and will try to verify all reports.
I will also add that, while anonymous posts are often unreliable, information coming directly from people who are not anonymous can sometimes be even more innaccurate than the anonymous sources. It has been my experience that present and former players are scared to death that their negative words about a coach or a program will get back to the coach and others if the player is identified. Most present and former players are going to be afraid of repercussions if they speak negatively and so you'll often get a glossy picture of what's going on. I happen to have a lot of experience with job interviews and have found that the present employers feel obligated to hide problems from perspective applicants as they don't want to negatively impact the recruitment process. Those present employers, similar to current team members on a tennis team, are often scared to death that the boss or the coach will find out that they revealed something negative and now will suffer in terms of future treatment by the coach on the team or the boss in the workplace.
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Permalink Reply by Brandon Sieh on
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I used to be an assistant coach at the Division 1 Level in the Big Ten. I would stay away from Northwestern, their coach is shady. Nice campus and good town and facilties but there are better coaches out there. Indiana is a great program with a coach who is dedicated to get your player better. Iowa--nice facilities. Coach did not impress me. Doesnt recruit that well and players dont fight too hard. Wisconsin's coach know's his stuff. Seems arrogant to me. Dancer at Illinois is a solid coach. And UW's coach is very solid from what i have heard. Your priority for your student should be---Coach #1, Academics/School#2, Tradition/Facilities #3.
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Thanks for the info, Brandon. I'm assuming that you're talking about the new Northwestern coach because I understand that the previous guy (Paul Saratolli or something like that?) just retired within the past couple of years.
Do you have an opinion about the Michigan coach? He certainly is recruiting well.
Did you play for Indiana?
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I think Paul is still at Northwestern if I'm not mistaken. Berque at Michigan is a good recruiter. Don't know him that well to comment on him, but i know our head coach did not like him. Tucker at Ohio State is intense. A slave driver, but he will make you better. Unless your student, is a 5 star recruit he wont be playin in the lineup at OSU, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, or Wisconsin. The best schools in my opinion for player development are Indiana, Illinois, and OSU. And the Michigan State coach and Minnesota coaches are below average. they dont get their players to play hard and have wasted some good talent. MSU only gets like 3 scholarships or something, so I dont blame everything on their coach for not being so good. Hope that helps.
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I just checked their website. Northwestern has a new coach this season named Arvid Swan. He seems to be recruiting very aggressively and just signed 3 good prospects for next year. This team is going to get more competitive. Paul Soratelli must have just retired.
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wow, that is news to me. Yea, NU has everything in place to be a top program. That was good for them to let Paul go, because he wasnt a great recruiter anyways.
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