Interview with Coach Schwarz

Schwarz_Coaching

Coach Schwarz with one of his early teams

 

The following interview with Coach Schwarz (January 28, 2014) gives us an insight into his leadership skills, enthusiasm and drive. He also provides some flavour of the team spirit and support that contributed to the success of the various Middlebury men’s tennis teams during his era in charge.

AJ: First of all, thank you for taking the time to speak to us and answer some of our burning questions. Obviously you had an immediate and long lasting impact on the Middlebury men’s tennis program. In the 1999/2000 season (before you arrived) the team went 5-9, and within a year you turned that around to 8-6 and went on to the win a National Championship within five years. What were the biggest changes you made?

DS: Middlebury tennis was basically just guys playing tennis in 2000, not tennis players. The previous coach had been coaching both (men’s and women’s) programs, and had been part of the NESCAC before NESCAC schools were even allowed to participate in NCAA’s. So the combination of being spread too thin, and coaching in an era where dreaming about NCAA’s wasn’t even possible, contributed to a somewhat dormant program. I did also coach squash for many of my years at Middlebury, but at least tennis was my full focus in season.

That first year, we weren’t that talented. But at least I got them thinking like tennis players, and we did improve. But we needed better players. One thing I want to note is that the early captains of the program, Matt Rymzo and Matt Dougherty, were completely on board with being part of a serious program even though they would miss out on playing for teams that consistently made the final four every year.

My first recruiting class at Midd included Justin Ingoglia, who was probably the first recruit in a long time who chose Midd over other good opportunities. Justin’s first year (our second), we finished 12 in the nation. Seemed really high (the team was barely even ranked in the region my first year) and I thought maybe that was as good as it was gonna get.

The 2002-2003 season was where it really changed. This was before tennis recruiting, so recruiting was a little more subjective than it is now. There were some inefficiencies in the market so to speak, and I think this was to our advantage. The freshmen that year might have been one of best division III recruiting classes of all time. What’s amazing is that they all committed to a program that had never even made the NCAA tournament. We finished 12 that second year, but they all committed long before that happened. Brian Waldron was a top player whose Mom had gone to Middlebury; Ari Beilin was a top New England player who hadn’t played a ton of national stuff and had surprisingly not gotten into an Ivy early decision; Nate Edmunds was the most amazing recruiting story of all. He was Williams’ (they were defending national champions) top recruit and was a Cornell legacy. I think he visited Middlebury as an afterthought. He came up on a gorgeous Fall day. I remember thinking we had zero chance anyway, and it was beautiful out and I wanted to go for a hike. I knew nothing about the kid and I asked him if he wanted to go hiking. He called me two days later and said he wanted to come to Middlebury. So in 2002-2003, three guys who would become multiple All Americans entered the program. Nothing was ever the same. These guys trained like players. They lifted weights, which had never been done at Middlebury before. We had medicine ball workouts at 6.30 AM. They didn’t care that it was division III. The big time was where they were and they wanted to win a national championship.

2003 we beat Williams for the first time. I’ll never forget it because Williams was the paragon of Division 3 at the time. They had won the last two NCAA championships, and hadn’t lost a NESCAC match in something like 11 years. We played them at home in the old Nelson (LIGHTNING fast). I had a bunch of big strong kids that loved fast courts. It was a mid week match and we had a couple of hundred fans in there. Only in the NESCAC are the tennis guys in the same frat as the football guys. Williams had kind of made their name on tough, grinding players who competed well and never beat themselves. On that day in Nelson they were overpowered and intimidated by the surface, the crowd, and the style of play that we played. Final was 6-1 (old 7 point system), and it was 6-0 at one point. I think people knew we were real then. We ended up losing in the final four to Emory (who won) and finished 4th (lost to Butorac’s team in third place match.) We may have just been happy to be there. Williams actually made the finals (great clutch team), but we were now on everyone’s radar.  After spring 2002, we didn’t lose to another NESCAC team until Williams in 2008. And that includes regular season play, the conference tournament, and NCAA play. And that was an era where the NESCAC was probably the strongest conference in the country.

Emory had won in 2003 with a very dominant team. They had a South African player at the top who looked like a pro. They had everyone back in 2004 plus a former Penn State starter who was playing 5. Everyone thought they were unbeatable heading into 2004. We were the 4 seed at nats so we had to play them in the semis. It was at Bates and it was during Midd finals. Yet some of the football guys took an RV, parked it in the fieldhouse parking lot and lived there all week. The local papers and TV even did a story on them. We beat Emory 4-1. Justin Ingoglia was a rock at number 5 singles clinching the match with a win over a Penn State transfer. Williams had upset a very good Cruz team in the semis and we were to play them for the title.

Middlebury supporters at the 2004 NCAA Final at Bates

Middlebury supporters at the 2004 NCAA Final at Bates

AJ: Take us back to the 2004 National Championship match against Williams at Bates. The men came back from a 1-3 deficit to win the first ever NCAA title in Middlebury tennis history. What was going through your mind when it came down to the deciding set of the last match when Alex Scott was battling it out? 

DS: Well the Williams final is on record but it was pretty exciting. We served 7-4 for the title and blew several match points including an absurd let cord. We were down 3-1 and all the last matches went to 3 sets. We won them all, and what was cool we attacked the net in all of them. Two of the most exciting matches came down to two of the freshmen on the team that year. George Mayer secured a crucial win at number four singles playing an incredible third set winning 6-4, 6-7 (7-5) 6-0 to push the match to the last remaining match at number six singles. Alex Scott was down 3-1 in the third against an undefeated player who he had already lost to twice that year. He was cramping badly and had to take an injury time out. Somehow he won.

One thing to note here is the leadership of Stu Brown and Steve Hulce. They were captains together in 2003 and Stu was a senior captain in 2004 but he had a wrist injury. Steve stayed an extra year and was our assistant coach in 2004. Those two guys were two of the best leaders I have ever been around. They both played on teams that weren’t that good at Midd. They both got a ring, and even though they didn’t play in the national championship, no chance the program gets to that point without them.

National Championship team of 2004 with the trophy after defeating Williams 4-3

National Championship team of 2004 with the trophy after defeating Williams 4-3
Front Row (L-R) Brian Waldron, Andrew Jacobi, Stu Brown, Alex Meditz, Justin Ingoglia.
Back Row (L-R) Kevin Bergesen, Asst. Coach Steve Hulse, Alex Scott, Nathan Edmunds, Jeff Oldenburg, George Mayer, Ari Beilin, Matt Rales, Head Coach Dave Schwarz

AJ: After winning the National Championship in 2004, you came very close again in 2005 and 2006 losing in the finals. Was it hard for returning players to rebound after the disappointment of coming so close to NCAA victory?

DS: Well, we had some strong teams 2005-2009 including losing in the finals twice. I think 2006 was probably our most talented team we ever had, but we just had a bad day in the finals. Emory played great, got on top us during singles. We were making a comeback but it was just too late and we went down 4-1. We were winning the other two matches.

AJ: Was there anything different about the two National Championship winning teams (2004 & 2010) that you coached compared to the rest of the teams?

2010 was very different from 2004 because we had a senior dominated team that was kind of a favorite all year and was the 1 seed at nationals. We had six seniors, Eliot Jia, Andrew Lee, Chris Mason, Peter Odell, Conrad Olson and Andrew Thomson. They all were in the line-up and they were all captains. They had had some close calls and nothing but a national title was going to satisfy them. They were fit, strong, and serious about tennis. The only issue was that Conrad Olson had a bad wrist and he only played singles a few times all year. Never a great doubles player, he obsessed about working on his volleys and serve and became a terrific doubles player. And he said he’d be able to get through singles at nationals if we rested him enough. We didn’t really have too many close calls that year. One 5-4 with Amherst, when Conrad sat out. We won the NESCAC’s easily and got to the semis without much of blip.

For some reason we were tight in the semis against a tough, well coached Wash U team. Very tight match. Conrad beat a future individual NCAA champion at 3 in three sets to clinch the match. Nobody (including the Wash U coach) really thought Conrad would lose, but it was still pretty nerve wracking. After that, we were relaxed for the final. We dominated Amherst, and only lost at 3 dubs. 5-1 and it was probably going to be 8-1. Andrew Lee was completely dominant the whole tournament. I had recruited Eliot Jia to play squash, not tennis. He became the best 5 in the country and an amazing doubles player. Andrew Peters played 1 and he had the single best work ethic I have seen up close in all my years in college tennis. Andrew Thomson is one of the most consistently positive guys I have ever been around. It was a group on a mission and they accomplished it.

2010_Champs

AJ: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us about your experiences at Middlebury.    

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