East Tennessee State Athletic Director Dr. Richard Sander announced the hiring of Martin Stiegwardt as the Buccaneers new Director of Tennis and Men’s Tennis Head Coach. Stiegwardt had spent the last six seasons as an assistant coach at three different schools (VCU/Auburn/LSU) with his most recent stop at LSU last season. Stiegwardt replaced Yaser Zaatini who resigned after 14 season due to allegations of falsified documents. Below are some quotes from ETSU’s release and the video below is from today’s press conference (starts at 1:21 mark).
“Having one of the most successful tennis programs in the country, it was important to identify and recruit the next leader who could continue and build on our history of success,” Sander said. “In talking with some very accomplished college coaches, it became clear to me that Martin Steigwardt was the right person to lead the ETSU tennis program. Martin was an outstanding scholar-athlete in his playing days and quickly became a successful coach after graduation. He has worked for some of the best coaches in the history of college tennis.
“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to be the Director of Tennis at ETSU,” Stiegwardt said. “I want to thank Dr. Sander, President Noland, Scott Carter and Mac Hart for giving me this great opportunity and for trusting me to lead the tennis program. I have always known of the history and success of the ETSU tennis team and it is something that I am looking forward to continuing and elevating to new heights.
The ITA Summer Circuit powered by Universal Tennis Rating gets fired up on Friday at nine different sites across the country. Unlike in the past when it was hard to find draws and scores, this year everything will be available on UTRs event page. To see a weekly schedule head over to the ITA’s event page which also has links back to UTR.
Six of the eight quarterfinalists at the Winston-Salem Futures have college ties including the top seed Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) and a pair of qualifiers, Riley Smith (USC) and Henry Craig (Denver). Craig defeated Ryan Shane (Virginia) in straight sets and will meet Kevin King after King defeated Andrew Carter (Louisville) 6-1, 6-2. Smith defeated Ronnie Schneider (UNC) 6-3, 6-2 and will face last week’s Winston-Salem champion Chris Eubanks (Georgia Tech) after the rising senior ousted former NCAA runner-up Eric Quigley (Kentucky). Wil Spencer (Georgia) got a walk over win over Brandon Holt and will meet former Georgia commit Tommy Paul. Krajicek defeated Deiton Baughman 7-5, 6-4 and will meet Jose “Rubin” Statham who defeated Andrew Harris (Oklahoma) 6-1, 6-4.
Several players with college ties have been successful this week at the other US Futures event which is taking place in Rochester. The top seed Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State) cruised past Winston Lin (Columbia) 6-1, 6-1 and will meet Alexander Knight (Michigan) after the rising senior knocked off Ohio State commit John McNally 6-3, 7-6. The 2017 NCAA Singles Champion Thai-Son Kwiatkowski knocked off Sasha Gozun (South Florida) 6-4, 6-4 and will next meet the No. 3 seed Kaichi Uchida. Cameron Silverman (Elon) took out the No. 2 seed Adam El Mihdawy in three sets and will face the No. 8 seed Gonzalo Lama while qualifier Sam Monette (Indiana) will meet the No. 7 seed Alexios Halebian.
We are excited to announce the addition of Maciek Sykut! He will be joining the program as assistant coach#BearDownhttps://t.co/BiLie6s5IH pic.twitter.com/oE6h0wrU6S
— Arizona Men’s Tennis (@ArizonaMTennis) June 19, 2017
While all the Power 5 head coaching hires have already been made there are still plenty of assistant coaching spots open though a few were filled in the last couple of days. Maciek Sykut is now the men’s assistant at Arizona after Alex Emery departed after one season. Sykut, who played at Florida State from 2005 to 2009, was the men’s assistant at NC State last year but with Jon Choboy replaced by Kyle Spencer that meant Sykut was available too.
Daniel Leitner, who played at South Alabama from 2011 to 2015, is the new women’s assistant coach at Iowa. Leitner had been the men’s assistant at Middle Tennessee State for the last two years but he heads to Iowa City to replace Drew Lieb who was there for just one season.
Robbie Mudge, who played at NC State 2011 to 2015, is the new men’s assistant coach at Charlotte. Mudge replaces Andrew Thomson who left after one season to go back to his alma mater Middlebury.
Pablo Nunez, who played at Detroit from 2010 to 2013, is the new men’s assistant coach at Western Michigan. Nunez replaces Nadin Indre who was on the staff for the last three years with the last two coming in the assistant coach role.
USC women’s head coach Alison Swain announced that Chris Wootton, who was her former assistant at Williams College, will be taking the same role at USC. Wootton has the distinction of being the oldest All-American in NCAA history in any sport after earning those honors at age 39 in 2015 after his final year at the University of Texas-Tyler.
The men’s assistant job at Georgia is officially open after the Macon Telegraph reported that Bo Hodge will not return for another season after being involved in an ongoing prescription drug investigation. I’d expect the job to be filled in the next week with plenty of good candidates to chose from.
Other notable men’s assistant coaching openings – Virginia, Georgia Tech, SMU, Middle Tennessee State
Other notable women’s assistant coaching openings – Virginia, Pittsburgh, Oregon, Brown, UNLV.
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