Special from
Division3Tennis.com
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The D-III tennis season has kicked into high gear! We just wrapped up Men's and Women's Indoor Nationals, and now most teams are heading to warmer weather for their spring break trips. There have already been some crazy results on the court, but today we here at Division3Tennis.com are going off the court to bring you inside the minds of two prominent D-III coaches.
Allison Swain is a legend in the D-III world, leading the Williams Ephs Women's Tennis Team to six straight national championships in her first six years coaching the program from 2008-2013! In her time at Williams, Coach Swain has a record of 157-20, and she owns the NCAA D-III record of 33 consecutive NCAA tournament matches won. A Williams graduate, Coach Swain led the Ephs to their first national championship as a player in 2001.
Joining Coach Swain in our interview today is Mike Fried. Coach Fried has coached at Wesleyan since 2011, becoming the head coach of the women's team in 2011 and the men's team in 2012. Coach Fried's 2018 men's class was ranked second nationally, and his women's recruiting class was ranked third nationally. The Wesleyan men's team just recently achieved their first win over a top-10 ranked team in program history, defeating the #8 Kenyon Lords last weekend.
In order to help you get to know what they look for in recruits, both coaches have graciously agreed to take part in our interview. As D-III continues to improve with every passing year, the coaches' jobs get more and more difficult. Below are a few of their thoughts on coaching, recruiting, and D-III tennis in general. Enjoy!
Q) Coaches, if you could have one quality in an incoming freshman, what would it be and why? Perhaps something a bit less cliché than just "a hard worker?"
Mike Fried, head coach, Wesleyan Men and Women
Sick doubles skills. (Laughs) Just kidding! It's really hard to distill it down to one single thing. On the one hand, there's the straight, on-court tennis side - we're looking for kids who have the foundation of tools, both physical and mental, such that they can make an immediate impact on what we're trying to do, which is win a national championship.
Beyond that, there is a whole set of traits that we're looking for - amongst them are conscientiousness, commitment, eagerness to learn, respectfulness, and, most importantly, kindness and compassion. We're looking for great, tough players who will be great teammates and awesome people to be around.
As fired up as we are about our goals, it's not at all at the expense of having the experience on the team at Wesleyan hopefully being one of the most fun, most memorable of their lives. That can't be a reality without the right group of kids.
Alison Swain, head coach, Williams Women
I look for players who are great competitors and have great sportsmanship. The way a player carries herself on court is a great indicator of her overall character. I like seeing players at tournaments who are fighting and focused regardless of the score, and I love to see players that are able to come back from being down in a match.
Q) OK coaches, let's hear your elevator pitches! As in, why should a high school player consider playing at Williams or Wesleyan?
Swain: Students at Williams are truly driven to excel in everything they take on here. From some of the best academics in the country to a top-level tennis (and athletic) program, our players have the opportunity to challenge themselves in a truly supportive and community-focused environment. The NESCAC is arguably the strongest D-III conference in the country for tennis, so the level that we get to train and compete at combined with the academic opportunities provide a one-of-a-kind balance for our student-athletes' college experience.
With all that said, I enjoy building individual relationships with our recruits, and it truly takes conversations with our coaching staff and players, as well as seeing campus in person, to get a strong feel for our college and team culture.
Fried: Firstly, if I'm excited about a prospect, I'm not at all above hitting the "stop" button on the elevator and keeping them a captive audience for 10-20 minutes!
As with most of the top D-III programs in the country, the attractiveness of Wesleyan is largely about the balance between one of the best educational opportunities in the country and top national tennis. I think the thing that distinguishes Wesleyan from a lot of the other schools that fit that bill is the overall atmosphere and feel of the school in general and the tennis teams in particular. Wesleyan's open curriculum seems to attract kids who are genuinely excited about their education and the opportunity to largely design their own curriculum. That in turn leads to the campus being a less pressurized, friendlier environment.
On a smaller scale, we're looking to harness and magnify that same sense of "we're all in this together" camaraderie within the tennis program. The opportunity to play tennis as a team sport is really the hallmark of the college tennis experience - anyone who does an official visit at Wesleyan comes away with a true sense of that camaraderie and support, and thankfully, it's an environment that a lot of kids would love to be a part of.
