October 2, 2025 • 22 mins
Fresh off a National Championship, Drake Bernstein joins me for a great discussion. The Dawgs enjoy the ride! They fully embrace having fun amongst the hard work. Tune in and listen to how Drake and the Georgia Bulldogs recruit, practice and operate on a daily basis. Amazing host of PTT events too!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, very special guest.
Today I'm here with head coach at Georgia for the women's
tennis team. His name is Drake Bernstein and
they are the defending national champions.
Drake, welcome on. Thanks for your time.
Yeah, happy to be here, man. Happy to to spend the morning
chatting with Makai. That's always a good morning.
(00:25):
So before we get into the to thegood stuff, it's obviously the
week after the Ryder Cup and I just, you know, knowing you're a
big golf guy and you love the game of golf, I just wanted to
get your opinion on it. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think that the fight that the US put up on the last
(00:45):
day is 1. That'll be talked about for a
while. I think that while Europe
retains a cup the next two years, I think it's one of those
things where you didn't quite win the tennis match, but you
made a statement on the last dayAnd, and I think that that's got
to play somewhere in the back ofEurope's mind over the next two
(01:07):
years, something for them to think about.
But I I think US will be ready to do it on the road.
Well, I'll say this. I think if Keegan Bradley had
played, the US would have won. And the second thing I'll say is
the 2027 Ryder Cup captain has to be one guy and it has to be
(01:28):
Tiger Woods. What do you think?
How about that? How about that?
I'd make sure some some good viewership.
Staying on golf, quick question for everyone listening is a few
people wanted me to ask you thisis who wins between you and you
and your associate head coach Jared Chaplin.
It's a total toss up. Two totally different players
(01:52):
here, 2 totally different approaches to the game.
Chaplain's a guy that can hit itfar and is also apartment to do
some poor things around the green.
I'm the one that that kind of puts along with a little 225
yard shot off the tee. You know, we we actually just
had the chance to play thanks toour good friends at NC State.
(02:16):
We had the chance to play dear and all Americans.
Chaps was one over going into 9.We were getting a quick nine in
and chaps one over going into 9,sends one out into just the
almost marsh, took four to get out and blows up on 9 and and
it's just, you know, it's golf'sa great sport.
(02:38):
Just requires a certain presenceand ability to get over the last
shot. A lot like the same sport that
that we play. I love it.
Great story. Last social question I have for
you is about Kirby Smart. Is it true that when you guys
are practicing on a daily basis,you can hear curvy coaching?
(03:01):
Is that right? Daily it starts at 4:00.
It's just up the hill here and you know, it's amazing.
Like, OK, so so last week we take a tough loss to Alabama.
This week is is Kentucky and it's the exact same energy every
single day. And and really like, I think
Kirby's been a great blueprint for what it can look like for an
(03:23):
alumni coaching at the place that they care about.
I mean, he pours his heart into it every day brings again, that
juice, that energy it there's just no slow down to it.
There is no relax and and coast for a days of practice again.
If if you ever want to hear Kirby 4:00 in Athens, GA,
practice is starting. You may not be able to get field
(03:44):
access, but you can hear him over the megaphone.
That's plenty. That's plenty.
What's he actually like? Like obviously he's he's a
phenomenal coach, seems like a great person.
Does he, does he come over to tennis and watch your matches?
Like what's? What's he actually like?
Yeah, I mean, he's around a lot.I'd say that those guys probably
come over two or three times a year to tennis.
And, and the great thing about Coach Smart is, is what you see
(04:09):
on TV and the the love and the passion, like that's, that's how
he's wired. That's who he is.
It's exactly what you see on TV.Got it.
Well, appreciate that information.
I know everyone listening would love to hear that.
So looking behind you, you have obviously had a tremendous
(04:30):
amount of success at Georgia, multiple semi finals,
quarterfinals, finals and then obviously most recently you you
won the national championship inMay.
Tell us, tell us. You know, there are a lot of
coaches out there that get very close, right?
(04:50):
They get to those final stages. If I'm to ask you, what's the
difference in actually crossing that line and and getting it
done? Yeah, I mean, if, if you, I
think it's going to change year to year, right.
But but the really this whole idea that there's a lot that are
getting close is really more of a testament to the depth of
(05:16):
college tennis and more so than it is one coach pulling A-Team
over a line. I mean, it's just like college
tennis has gotten to the point to where it used to be, You
know, a top five team in the country is, well, they're going
to win their round of 32 match, they're going to win their round
of 16 match and they'll be at the final.
There's none of that. Like if the round of 32 is
totally volatile, anything can happen.
(05:38):
Round of 16, anything can happen.
So I think if there was anythingthat did it for us last year,
I'd probably say it was the way that we went about our Tuesday,
Wednesday practices. And it, it got to the point to
where that kind of performance was just something that we did
every day. Really.
(05:58):
There's no hero speech whence you get to the end stages.
It was almost less. It's like, OK, we'll just go do
what you know how to do, Go swing.
You guys have fun. You've earned it.
And it, it was a group that was playing hard for each other,
hard for Georgia, 4 seniors thatwanted to go out on top.
Yeah, they kind of made-up theirminds that that was it was a big
deal. You say that about four seniors.
(06:20):
Do you think, I'm not sure what the framework of your team was
there, but do you think arguablyit's more important coming from
actually coming from them like internal leadership?
Absolutely. I mean, it's, it's and it's not
so much like a leadership thing.It's as much I feel like as it
is like, are they comfortable? Do they understand the truth in
(06:42):
the full picture about what's going on?
All of the distractions that could into your head, the the
ones that matter, the ones that don't matter.
I think that experience was probably the biggest piece of
the leadership. We just knew what was important
and and you know, those those ladies had a wonderful way of
making it work out. So you were obviously the
(07:06):
assistant coach, associate head,and then you took the role as
head coach recently, not recently, but what's that
transition been like? Like how?
How's that whole period gone foryou personally?
Yeah, it's just been a blast. I mean, we're this, this place
and the staff that I get to do it with, with Jared and Will and
Kate and all of our support staff, our athletic director,
(07:29):
Josh Brooks, like we, we, I don't know, I feel like there
sometimes in college athletics, especially in Olympic sport like
tennis, we can kind of get caught up and thinking it's like
this seismic event every time weplay a match.
And we've kind of taken the approach of let's just enjoy
everyday. Let's have fun.
(07:50):
When we go out to lunch, we're having fun.
When we go to coffee, we're having fun.
We practice, we're working our tail off, but it's still like
productive and we enjoy being with each other.
So I'd say that's the biggest thing first few years.
Like we, we've really made it a,a project and A and a goal to
enjoy what we're doing. And and I think we've succeeded
(08:11):
so far. So you won the national
championship in May and what tends to happen when a team wins
the national championship is there may be a drop off, maybe
they have a lot of older playersand they move on or they turn
pro and there's a maybe a rebuilding phase, right?
That is absolutely not the case with Georgia this year.
(08:36):
If you actually go to UTR and you look at the power rankings,
Georgia are actually number one.I know great coach, you probably
don't look at that too much, butwhen you look at that, what that
shows me and what that shows people out there is you have the
talent, you have phenomenal players.
My question to you is how do youget these great players?
(08:58):
What do you, what do you do? What do you what is your you
could call it sell or conversations like to these
great players to come to Georgia?
You know, it's interesting to use that word because I think
it's almost like an absence of acell.
It's really more informative. It's this is what Georgia is.
(09:19):
We, we, we only bring in playersthat were very excited about on
a on a recruiting trip. But when they get to see it,
it's not really a a hard sell ofany sort as much as it is, well,
this is who we are. This is what the day-to-day
looks like. Is this something that excites
you or not? And I think that like, again,
I'm excited about the direction of the program's moving and
(09:42):
continuing to build momentum because it, it's just players
and, and young ladies that want to be here.
It's, it's, they're excited about taking on this wearing of
the red and black and, and all that goes with it.
So, so really it's again, it's not a ton of sales as much as
you know. Does this excite you?
Do you love tennis as much as wedo?
(10:04):
Right. Got it.
And and looking at that recruit,you have a pool of 20 players or
you go to a tournament and you see X amount of players.
What what's the determining factor for you as a coaching
staff? What what do you actually look
for? Is the size?
Is it power? Is it only results?
Is it character? What is it?
Yeah, I mean, if you were to look at our team, you see a lot
(10:25):
of different game styles, right?We, we've got grinders, we've
got aggressive players, and of course there's going to be
things that we work on while in college.
The, the biggest thing that we need here at Georgia is, is we
need players that love tennis. And there's kind of this thing
these days of like, you know, people will go to a tournament
(10:46):
and say, Oh, I got to go play this tournament or I've got to
go play a match. And I'm the last, if you don't
love it, like why are we doing it?
And so I I think that finding those players that love it and
that are going to get excited about a match or even a
practice, that's the big deal for us.
Got it. Structure of your program,
(11:07):
right. You don't have to reveal
everything obviously from a competitive standpoint, but who
are you as a coach? Is it afternoons, team practice?
Do you play double S in the morning?
Is it a lot of individuals? Is it technical?
What? What do you how do you run this
thing? Yeah.
I mean, I think that again, it it's where we've got what what I
feel like to be a pretty unique staff in in terms of three
(11:29):
different personalities with I'mthe head coach and and kind of
what you see is what you get getting chaps Jared chap on the
assistant app incredible tennis mind, incredible double S mind
has a certain way of communicating why something may
be relevant to somebody's game on in the individual setting.
(11:51):
Will Reynolds is kind of the thepiece chaps and I we might get a
little bit fired up and a littlebit louder at times or a little
bit more enthusiastic, let's say.
And will is always there to holdthe baseline for the group.
So, so really I think that I I bring them up because it's trust
(12:12):
among the group of coaches, right?
It's like it's one of them may see something different than how
I see it. And sure, run with it, run with
it. And, and really I think we're
all on the same page as what this experience should look
like. And the experience of college
Tennessee, experience of playingat Georgia, we're all pretty
(12:33):
united on that front. And, and we just set out to do
it with different voices and in different ways.
Question for you that I actuallydidn't have prepared, but I just
started to think about it now iswhen you go on the road, let's
say you're playing an SEC weekend and you're playing
Thursday, Saturday or Friday, Sunday routines, do you leave
(12:55):
the day before? Do you get hit that day?
Do you do a hit on the morning of the match?
What sort of routines do you guys have?
Yeah. Like if we play a night match at
something about four or later, we'll usually try to get out and
do something in the morning, whether it's hitting balls or
just going for a walk or a yoga session in the morning.
We always eat 3 hours before every match and, and, and I
(13:18):
think that once we get to the courts, we put our phones down
and then we're two hours out andwe're locked into the match and
what's ahead of us. And obviously, you know, being a
coach yourself at those routinesand and making everyday feel the
same is a big deal whether you're playing the team that's
number one in the nation or thator a team that's ranked fifty.
(13:40):
Got it. UTR.
Let's talk UTR. First of all, how do you use it
for your program on a daily basis, Weekly basis, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I think it's probably
the first metric as far as if you were to be looking at a
player, let's say one of our players is getting ready to play
somebody, even if it's one of our alumni, we'll toss it into
(14:03):
UTR to see about what kind of level we can expect.
And, and like any metric, it's not perfect, but it's pretty
Dang good. It can give you a ballpark.
It can't predict which way the wind is going to blow a certain
way if it's going to blow a ballin or out, but it's going to
give you a ballpark level. And so from that sense, it's,
it's nice to be able to say thisis about where you're at, you
(14:27):
know, give or take a little bit on any given day, This is about
where you're at. And really for our own players
to see that progress. And, and the best part about it
is you can go out and you can get one great win and UTR is
going to consider that, but it'snot going to just shoot you up
the charts, right? And so it's a great way of
tracking steady progress and seeing where players go maybe
(14:50):
over the course of six months, ayear or four years.
But but yeah, we're on it definitely daily.
This another question that should come to mind.
Again, I, I tried to prepare these, but I want these
conversations to be real. I want them to be fun.
I want people to truly get an insight into you into college
(15:11):
tennis programs and, you know, football coaches.
And that's, that's what I'm trying to do here, right?
But you bring up, you know, having one result or, or this or
that. If you look at professional
tennis players on the women's side, is there a certain level
where you as coaches go, you need to GoPro or you reach this
(15:35):
ranking in juniors, you should probably GoPro.
Like what's the mindset there? Because I coached on the men's
side, right? What's that mindset like on the
women's side? Yeah, I mean, I I think that is
still pretty case dependent because you could have a player
that's of a certain level, but nowhere near ready to take on
the challenge of the tour and losing almost every week, right
(15:57):
and and be able to handle that. I think that once you're hitting
top ten ITF or you're you're really, you know, I looked the
other day, there's there's over 550 players on the women's side
that are above and 11 UTR. That's a lot of really, really
good players out there, right. And so just because you're a
really good player, does it meanyou're ready for the tour?
(16:20):
I'm not just so sure. I think that it that it's case
to case there, but I, I think top 10 juniors have a have a
good shot out there. I still think there's plenty of
value for them to be had in college.
But but also, you know, if you're, if you're 16 years old
and you're you're 208 year, yourprospects are looking pretty
(16:41):
promising at that point. Right. 200 WTA Sorry.
Right, so you and the men are hosting.
You hosted APTT in August, two you hosted 2 in August, and
you're hosting one in January. Why?
Why is that? Yeah, it's, it's guaranteed
matches, it's quality matches. It's matches that that kind of
(17:04):
reflect a college season where it's like if you go and you play
a, let's say you go play W 35 and you lose your first day
while you're off for the week. Well, in college, you go to
National indoors, an event like National indoors, your team may
win first round, you lost and you've got to get back up again
and, and tie him up for the nextday.
(17:24):
You may lose again and you got to tie him up.
And maybe now it's the most important match of the
tournament where it's the finalsand you've got to be ready to
go. I love that about the UT Rs
where there's separation from the day before.
It doesn't really matter what you did the day before.
It matters what you do today. And that goes right in line with
a lot of our coaching. And so the, the, the tournaments
(17:44):
there, it's just again, you're going to get quality matches,
you're going to get five of themin a week and you'll, you'll
have notes after it. Everything's streamed,
everything's recorded. It's, it's a great tool for for
anybody, whether you're in college, whether you're entering
college. A lot of times, you know, we may
speak with a recruit who has never watched himself play on
(18:08):
video, right? I think it's a totally kind of
huge hidden benefit of these PTTS.
You're going to be able to go back and watch your match.
On, on that, on that note of a recruit, I have two more
questions for you. Just to finish up here, a junior
out there, recruit out there is listening to this conversation
briefly. Why come to Georgia?
(18:31):
I mean, it's the home of collegetennis.
It's the the greatest crowds, the greatest environment.
Why? A better question.
Why wouldn't you come to Georgia?
We've got great academics, we'vegot great football, we've got a
great athletic department. We've got America's number one
college town. Is that enough for you, James?
(18:54):
I will say, I will say this, when NCA goes to Athens in May,
I encourage people out there, ifyou are considering ongoing, you
should because it will be an environment that you've never
seen before. I'm a big believer that actually
I've always said this, that the NSA tournament should always be
(19:16):
in Athens. I even said that when I was
coaching at Tennessee. Obviously a potential advantage
to a competitor like Georgia, but it doesn't matter.
I mean, you want an environment,you want crowds and and you want
something so special for these student athletes that they
remember for the rest of their life.
And I just think that come next May, it's going to be an
(19:37):
amazing, an amazing event. Just on that.
Preparations going OK, everything, everything going
well and looking forward to it. The grass is looking very green.
Everything is looking tidy. Everybody there is in these NCAA
years in Athens, there's a little bit of, I don't know,
something in the air, not just not just with the team, but with
(19:58):
the community. Everybody knows, everybody here
in Athens knows the NCA as are coming this year and everybody
in the department is excited to see May.
Why? Sorry?
How come you guys get the fans? Like where do they?
Is it just like, is it just Athens in general?
Is it a tennis community? It is a nice tennis community.
(20:19):
I think it's the history, you know, coach McGill years back
set this thing up and really nowpeople have just gotten used to.
It's what you do on your Fridaysand Sundays in the spring in
Athens. You come to the tennis mat.
It's just what you do. And I think that it's it's also
a reflection. We have a great product, not
just Georgia college tennis has a great product.
(20:41):
Once people come once they're going to come again.
And I think that it's just kind of snowballed with momentum here
in Athens. And, and I'm hopeful that that
continues to grow across the country too.
Like you said, I mean, I, I'll take, I'll take 1000 fans
rooting against us, then over 50fans, half of which are parents,
right? Like give us the atmosphere,
(21:02):
give us the experience and make us tougher.
Completely agree. Last question, expectations for
the year. Do you talk about goals?
How do you approach that? You're you're fresh off winning
a national title? How How are you feeling as a
head coach and what do you communicate with your team?
Yeah, we let usually we let people like you talk about the
(21:27):
goals for the team and what we should or shouldn't do.
Our biggest concern is what are we doing today?
We don't really care about tomorrow.
What are we doing today? Is it, does it look like what
it's supposed to look like? Are we on the plan we set out to
be? Are we being honest with
ourselves in our development? You know, we do those things, we
(21:50):
feel good about the rest taking care of itself.
Love it, Absolutely love that mindset.
Well, as a reminder, there's a PTT event coming to Athens in
January. The NCAA Tournament is coming to
Athens in May Drake, I really appreciate your time.
Best of luck this year and all the best to you and your family.
Thanks to you and all you do go dogs.
Ladies and gentlemen, very special guest.
Today I'm here with head coach at Georgia for the women's
tennis team. His name is Drake Bernstein and
they are the defending national champions.
Drake, welcome on. Thanks for your time.
Yeah, happy to be here, man. Happy to to spend the morning
chatting with Makai. That's always a good morning.
(00:25):
So before we get into the to thegood stuff, it's obviously the
week after the Ryder Cup and I just, you know, knowing you're a
big golf guy and you love the game of golf, I just wanted to
get your opinion on it. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think that the fight that the US put up on the last
(00:45):
day is 1. That'll be talked about for a
while. I think that while Europe
retains a cup the next two years, I think it's one of those
things where you didn't quite win the tennis match, but you
made a statement on the last dayAnd, and I think that that's got
to play somewhere in the back ofEurope's mind over the next two
(01:07):
years, something for them to think about.
But I I think US will be ready to do it on the road.
Well, I'll say this. I think if Keegan Bradley had
played, the US would have won. And the second thing I'll say is
the 2027 Ryder Cup captain has to be one guy and it has to be
(01:28):
Tiger Woods. What do you think?
How about that? How about that?
I'd make sure some some good viewership.
Staying on golf, quick question for everyone listening is a few
people wanted me to ask you thisis who wins between you and you
and your associate head coach Jared Chaplin.
It's a total toss up. Two totally different players
(01:52):
here, 2 totally different approaches to the game.
Chaplain's a guy that can hit itfar and is also apartment to do
some poor things around the green.
I'm the one that that kind of puts along with a little 225
yard shot off the tee. You know, we we actually just
had the chance to play thanks toour good friends at NC State.
(02:16):
We had the chance to play dear and all Americans.
Chaps was one over going into 9.We were getting a quick nine in
and chaps one over going into 9,sends one out into just the
almost marsh, took four to get out and blows up on 9 and and
it's just, you know, it's golf'sa great sport.
(02:38):
Just requires a certain presenceand ability to get over the last
shot. A lot like the same sport that
that we play. I love it.
Great story. Last social question I have for
you is about Kirby Smart. Is it true that when you guys
are practicing on a daily basis,you can hear curvy coaching?
(03:01):
Is that right? Daily it starts at 4:00.
It's just up the hill here and you know, it's amazing.
Like, OK, so so last week we take a tough loss to Alabama.
This week is is Kentucky and it's the exact same energy every
single day. And and really like, I think
Kirby's been a great blueprint for what it can look like for an
(03:23):
alumni coaching at the place that they care about.
I mean, he pours his heart into it every day brings again, that
juice, that energy it there's just no slow down to it.
There is no relax and and coast for a days of practice again.
If if you ever want to hear Kirby 4:00 in Athens, GA,
practice is starting. You may not be able to get field
(03:44):
access, but you can hear him over the megaphone.
That's plenty. That's plenty.
What's he actually like? Like obviously he's he's a
phenomenal coach, seems like a great person.
Does he, does he come over to tennis and watch your matches?
Like what's? What's he actually like?
Yeah, I mean, he's around a lot.I'd say that those guys probably
come over two or three times a year to tennis.
And, and the great thing about Coach Smart is, is what you see
(04:09):
on TV and the the love and the passion, like that's, that's how
he's wired. That's who he is.
It's exactly what you see on TV.Got it.
Well, appreciate that information.
I know everyone listening would love to hear that.
So looking behind you, you have obviously had a tremendous
(04:30):
amount of success at Georgia, multiple semi finals,
quarterfinals, finals and then obviously most recently you you
won the national championship inMay.
Tell us, tell us. You know, there are a lot of
coaches out there that get very close, right?
(04:50):
They get to those final stages. If I'm to ask you, what's the
difference in actually crossing that line and and getting it
done? Yeah, I mean, if, if you, I
think it's going to change year to year, right.
But but the really this whole idea that there's a lot that are
getting close is really more of a testament to the depth of
(05:16):
college tennis and more so than it is one coach pulling A-Team
over a line. I mean, it's just like college
tennis has gotten to the point to where it used to be, You
know, a top five team in the country is, well, they're going
to win their round of 32 match, they're going to win their round
of 16 match and they'll be at the final.
There's none of that. Like if the round of 32 is
totally volatile, anything can happen.
(05:38):
Round of 16, anything can happen.
So I think if there was anythingthat did it for us last year,
I'd probably say it was the way that we went about our Tuesday,
Wednesday practices. And it, it got to the point to
where that kind of performance was just something that we did
every day. Really.
(05:58):
There's no hero speech whence you get to the end stages.
It was almost less. It's like, OK, we'll just go do
what you know how to do, Go swing.
You guys have fun. You've earned it.
And it, it was a group that was playing hard for each other,
hard for Georgia, 4 seniors thatwanted to go out on top.
Yeah, they kind of made-up theirminds that that was it was a big
deal. You say that about four seniors.
(06:20):
Do you think, I'm not sure what the framework of your team was
there, but do you think arguablyit's more important coming from
actually coming from them like internal leadership?
Absolutely. I mean, it's, it's and it's not
so much like a leadership thing.It's as much I feel like as it
is like, are they comfortable? Do they understand the truth in
(06:42):
the full picture about what's going on?
All of the distractions that could into your head, the the
ones that matter, the ones that don't matter.
I think that experience was probably the biggest piece of
the leadership. We just knew what was important
and and you know, those those ladies had a wonderful way of
making it work out. So you were obviously the
(07:06):
assistant coach, associate head,and then you took the role as
head coach recently, not recently, but what's that
transition been like? Like how?
How's that whole period gone foryou personally?
Yeah, it's just been a blast. I mean, we're this, this place
and the staff that I get to do it with, with Jared and Will and
Kate and all of our support staff, our athletic director,
(07:29):
Josh Brooks, like we, we, I don't know, I feel like there
sometimes in college athletics, especially in Olympic sport like
tennis, we can kind of get caught up and thinking it's like
this seismic event every time weplay a match.
And we've kind of taken the approach of let's just enjoy
everyday. Let's have fun.
(07:50):
When we go out to lunch, we're having fun.
When we go to coffee, we're having fun.
We practice, we're working our tail off, but it's still like
productive and we enjoy being with each other.
So I'd say that's the biggest thing first few years.
Like we, we've really made it a,a project and A and a goal to
enjoy what we're doing. And and I think we've succeeded
(08:11):
so far. So you won the national
championship in May and what tends to happen when a team wins
the national championship is there may be a drop off, maybe
they have a lot of older playersand they move on or they turn
pro and there's a maybe a rebuilding phase, right?
That is absolutely not the case with Georgia this year.
(08:36):
If you actually go to UTR and you look at the power rankings,
Georgia are actually number one.I know great coach, you probably
don't look at that too much, butwhen you look at that, what that
shows me and what that shows people out there is you have the
talent, you have phenomenal players.
My question to you is how do youget these great players?
(08:58):
What do you, what do you do? What do you what is your you
could call it sell or conversations like to these
great players to come to Georgia?
You know, it's interesting to use that word because I think
it's almost like an absence of acell.
It's really more informative. It's this is what Georgia is.
(09:19):
We, we, we only bring in playersthat were very excited about on
a on a recruiting trip. But when they get to see it,
it's not really a a hard sell ofany sort as much as it is, well,
this is who we are. This is what the day-to-day
looks like. Is this something that excites
you or not? And I think that like, again,
I'm excited about the direction of the program's moving and
(09:42):
continuing to build momentum because it, it's just players
and, and young ladies that want to be here.
It's, it's, they're excited about taking on this wearing of
the red and black and, and all that goes with it.
So, so really it's again, it's not a ton of sales as much as
you know. Does this excite you?
Do you love tennis as much as wedo?
(10:04):
Right. Got it.
And and looking at that recruit,you have a pool of 20 players or
you go to a tournament and you see X amount of players.
What what's the determining factor for you as a coaching
staff? What what do you actually look
for? Is the size?
Is it power? Is it only results?
Is it character? What is it?
Yeah, I mean, if you were to look at our team, you see a lot
(10:25):
of different game styles, right?We, we've got grinders, we've
got aggressive players, and of course there's going to be
things that we work on while in college.
The, the biggest thing that we need here at Georgia is, is we
need players that love tennis. And there's kind of this thing
these days of like, you know, people will go to a tournament
(10:46):
and say, Oh, I got to go play this tournament or I've got to
go play a match. And I'm the last, if you don't
love it, like why are we doing it?
And so I I think that finding those players that love it and
that are going to get excited about a match or even a
practice, that's the big deal for us.
Got it. Structure of your program,
(11:07):
right. You don't have to reveal
everything obviously from a competitive standpoint, but who
are you as a coach? Is it afternoons, team practice?
Do you play double S in the morning?
Is it a lot of individuals? Is it technical?
What? What do you how do you run this
thing? Yeah.
I mean, I think that again, it it's where we've got what what I
feel like to be a pretty unique staff in in terms of three
(11:29):
different personalities with I'mthe head coach and and kind of
what you see is what you get getting chaps Jared chap on the
assistant app incredible tennis mind, incredible double S mind
has a certain way of communicating why something may
be relevant to somebody's game on in the individual setting.
(11:51):
Will Reynolds is kind of the thepiece chaps and I we might get a
little bit fired up and a littlebit louder at times or a little
bit more enthusiastic, let's say.
And will is always there to holdthe baseline for the group.
So, so really I think that I I bring them up because it's trust
(12:12):
among the group of coaches, right?
It's like it's one of them may see something different than how
I see it. And sure, run with it, run with
it. And, and really I think we're
all on the same page as what this experience should look
like. And the experience of college
Tennessee, experience of playingat Georgia, we're all pretty
(12:33):
united on that front. And, and we just set out to do
it with different voices and in different ways.
Question for you that I actuallydidn't have prepared, but I just
started to think about it now iswhen you go on the road, let's
say you're playing an SEC weekend and you're playing
Thursday, Saturday or Friday, Sunday routines, do you leave
(12:55):
the day before? Do you get hit that day?
Do you do a hit on the morning of the match?
What sort of routines do you guys have?
Yeah. Like if we play a night match at
something about four or later, we'll usually try to get out and
do something in the morning, whether it's hitting balls or
just going for a walk or a yoga session in the morning.
We always eat 3 hours before every match and, and, and I
(13:18):
think that once we get to the courts, we put our phones down
and then we're two hours out andwe're locked into the match and
what's ahead of us. And obviously, you know, being a
coach yourself at those routinesand and making everyday feel the
same is a big deal whether you're playing the team that's
number one in the nation or thator a team that's ranked fifty.
(13:40):
Got it. UTR.
Let's talk UTR. First of all, how do you use it
for your program on a daily basis, Weekly basis, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I think it's probably
the first metric as far as if you were to be looking at a
player, let's say one of our players is getting ready to play
somebody, even if it's one of our alumni, we'll toss it into
(14:03):
UTR to see about what kind of level we can expect.
And, and like any metric, it's not perfect, but it's pretty
Dang good. It can give you a ballpark.
It can't predict which way the wind is going to blow a certain
way if it's going to blow a ballin or out, but it's going to
give you a ballpark level. And so from that sense, it's,
it's nice to be able to say thisis about where you're at, you
(14:27):
know, give or take a little bit on any given day, This is about
where you're at. And really for our own players
to see that progress. And, and the best part about it
is you can go out and you can get one great win and UTR is
going to consider that, but it'snot going to just shoot you up
the charts, right? And so it's a great way of
tracking steady progress and seeing where players go maybe
(14:50):
over the course of six months, ayear or four years.
But but yeah, we're on it definitely daily.
This another question that should come to mind.
Again, I, I tried to prepare these, but I want these
conversations to be real. I want them to be fun.
I want people to truly get an insight into you into college
(15:11):
tennis programs and, you know, football coaches.
And that's, that's what I'm trying to do here, right?
But you bring up, you know, having one result or, or this or
that. If you look at professional
tennis players on the women's side, is there a certain level
where you as coaches go, you need to GoPro or you reach this
(15:35):
ranking in juniors, you should probably GoPro.
Like what's the mindset there? Because I coached on the men's
side, right? What's that mindset like on the
women's side? Yeah, I mean, I I think that is
still pretty case dependent because you could have a player
that's of a certain level, but nowhere near ready to take on
the challenge of the tour and losing almost every week, right
(15:57):
and and be able to handle that. I think that once you're hitting
top ten ITF or you're you're really, you know, I looked the
other day, there's there's over 550 players on the women's side
that are above and 11 UTR. That's a lot of really, really
good players out there, right. And so just because you're a
really good player, does it meanyou're ready for the tour?
(16:20):
I'm not just so sure. I think that it that it's case
to case there, but I, I think top 10 juniors have a have a
good shot out there. I still think there's plenty of
value for them to be had in college.
But but also, you know, if you're, if you're 16 years old
and you're you're 208 year, yourprospects are looking pretty
(16:41):
promising at that point. Right. 200 WTA Sorry.
Right, so you and the men are hosting.
You hosted APTT in August, two you hosted 2 in August, and
you're hosting one in January. Why?
Why is that? Yeah, it's, it's guaranteed
matches, it's quality matches. It's matches that that kind of
(17:04):
reflect a college season where it's like if you go and you play
a, let's say you go play W 35 and you lose your first day
while you're off for the week. Well, in college, you go to
National indoors, an event like National indoors, your team may
win first round, you lost and you've got to get back up again
and, and tie him up for the nextday.
(17:24):
You may lose again and you got to tie him up.
And maybe now it's the most important match of the
tournament where it's the finalsand you've got to be ready to
go. I love that about the UT Rs
where there's separation from the day before.
It doesn't really matter what you did the day before.
It matters what you do today. And that goes right in line with
a lot of our coaching. And so the, the, the tournaments
(17:44):
there, it's just again, you're going to get quality matches,
you're going to get five of themin a week and you'll, you'll
have notes after it. Everything's streamed,
everything's recorded. It's, it's a great tool for for
anybody, whether you're in college, whether you're entering
college. A lot of times, you know, we may
speak with a recruit who has never watched himself play on
(18:08):
video, right? I think it's a totally kind of
huge hidden benefit of these PTTS.
You're going to be able to go back and watch your match.
On, on that, on that note of a recruit, I have two more
questions for you. Just to finish up here, a junior
out there, recruit out there is listening to this conversation
briefly. Why come to Georgia?
(18:31):
I mean, it's the home of collegetennis.
It's the the greatest crowds, the greatest environment.
Why? A better question.
Why wouldn't you come to Georgia?
We've got great academics, we'vegot great football, we've got a
great athletic department. We've got America's number one
college town. Is that enough for you, James?
(18:54):
I will say, I will say this, when NCA goes to Athens in May,
I encourage people out there, ifyou are considering ongoing, you
should because it will be an environment that you've never
seen before. I'm a big believer that actually
I've always said this, that the NSA tournament should always be
(19:16):
in Athens. I even said that when I was
coaching at Tennessee. Obviously a potential advantage
to a competitor like Georgia, but it doesn't matter.
I mean, you want an environment,you want crowds and and you want
something so special for these student athletes that they
remember for the rest of their life.
And I just think that come next May, it's going to be an
(19:37):
amazing, an amazing event. Just on that.
Preparations going OK, everything, everything going
well and looking forward to it. The grass is looking very green.
Everything is looking tidy. Everybody there is in these NCAA
years in Athens, there's a little bit of, I don't know,
something in the air, not just not just with the team, but with
(19:58):
the community. Everybody knows, everybody here
in Athens knows the NCA as are coming this year and everybody
in the department is excited to see May.
Why? Sorry?
How come you guys get the fans? Like where do they?
Is it just like, is it just Athens in general?
Is it a tennis community? It is a nice tennis community.
(20:19):
I think it's the history, you know, coach McGill years back
set this thing up and really nowpeople have just gotten used to.
It's what you do on your Fridaysand Sundays in the spring in
Athens. You come to the tennis mat.
It's just what you do. And I think that it's it's also
a reflection. We have a great product, not
just Georgia college tennis has a great product.
(20:41):
Once people come once they're going to come again.
And I think that it's just kind of snowballed with momentum here
in Athens. And, and I'm hopeful that that
continues to grow across the country too.
Like you said, I mean, I, I'll take, I'll take 1000 fans
rooting against us, then over 50fans, half of which are parents,
right? Like give us the atmosphere,
(21:02):
give us the experience and make us tougher.
Completely agree. Last question, expectations for
the year. Do you talk about goals?
How do you approach that? You're you're fresh off winning
a national title? How How are you feeling as a
head coach and what do you communicate with your team?
Yeah, we let usually we let people like you talk about the
(21:27):
goals for the team and what we should or shouldn't do.
Our biggest concern is what are we doing today?
We don't really care about tomorrow.
What are we doing today? Is it, does it look like what
it's supposed to look like? Are we on the plan we set out to
be? Are we being honest with
ourselves in our development? You know, we do those things, we
(21:50):
feel good about the rest taking care of itself.
Love it, Absolutely love that mindset.
Well, as a reminder, there's a PTT event coming to Athens in
January. The NCAA Tournament is coming to
Athens in May Drake, I really appreciate your time.
Best of luck this year and all the best to you and your family.
Thanks to you and all you do go dogs.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!