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Winning Ways are Contagious

Winning Ways are Contagious

2/16/2004

Zach Dailey and Chad Harris were named co-champions of the SEC Indoor Championships.

Winning Ways are Contagious
By Jenny O’Neill

One remedy to a plague is relaxation.
There is an infectious outbreak spreading across the Vanderbilt men’s tennis, but relaxation makes it more out of control. Seniors Zach Dailey and Chad Harris are the carriers. They recently became co-winners of the SEC Indoor Championships.

“Winning is contagious,” said Harris, who is ranked 55th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. “If you see teammates win, you catch the attitude from them that you’re going to win.”

Last season the Commodores, won the SEC Championship and advanced to the finals of the NCAA Championship, with Harris and Dailey, who is ranked 45th by ITA, leading the way.

Harris said he thought relaxation was part of the reason the team found success last season. He said the team hopes the remedy continues to work and take the Commodores once again down the path to the national title match.

“We have no concrete goals this season,” Harris said. “We just want to have fun and play relaxed tennis. The end result is great, but the path we choose to take will be the best part of the season.

“We turned last season around by relaxing. We lost a match because we were so uptight. From that point forward, we relaxed and winning came with that.”

While Dailey and Harris hope to spread their winning ways to their teammates, they take lessons from known winners. Both watch professional tennis on television in their spare time.

“You can draw a lot from watching professionals play,” Dailey said. “By watching them, you pick up their mannerisms and their winning attitudes.”

Dailey’s tennis role model is someone who carries the winning plague. He said his role model is five time U.S. Open winner Jimmy Connors.

“I try to keep myself as intense as Jimmy Connors was both on and off the court,” Dailey said. “He kept himself pumped up and always happy.”

Harris’ role model also knows what victory feels like. He said his role model is Andre Agassi.

To prepare for matches, Dailey said everyone does his own individual thing. Dailey said he listens to 80’s music and jumps rope prior to taking the court.

The SEC season for Dailey, Harris and the men’s tennis team begins March 5. Dailey said the team hopes the team chemistry can continue to make winning contagious.