Duvenhage has the “Right Stuff”

Duvenhage has the “Right Stuff”

5/8/2006

By Rod Williamson

The NCAA announced its field of teams for the 2006 Men’s Tennis Tournament last week and Vanderbilt was one of three Southeastern Conference schools left standing at the alter. We have an individual, Ryan Preston, playing, but it wasn’t a surprise that our full team didn’t make the tourney after this rebuilding season.

Unless you paid close attention, you might be thinking that our men’s tennis has taken a big tumble from just three years ago when the Commodores played Illinois for the national championship. Coach Ken Flach unexpectedly left as head coach midway through the 2005 season, sending several recruits in other directions. As a result, we had a roster of six this year — the minimum required for an NCAA match.  However, if you are thinking doomsday thoughts you couldn’t be more wrong.

Ian Duvenhage became our head coach last summer, joining us from the professional coaching ranks. He had previously been one of the nation’s most successful head coaches at Florida and, luckily for Vanderbilt, was very good friends with our women’s tennis coach Geoff Macdonald.

Duvenhage had said that Vanderbilt would be one of three universities that he would leave the pro ranks to coach.  He is an outstanding teacher, taking an uneven group with no margin of error and coaching them into a competitive unit. You could feel our team grow during the season. If that was all there was to the story, I probably would have chosen to write on another topic today. But Duvenhage is special and one of the greatest lessons he taught this year had more to do off the court than on.

The team’s motto this season was “Six or Nix”, meaning without six guys we would have no team.  However, on the eve of our match at Tennessee Duvenhage realized one of his troops had broken a team rule. 

Some coaches would have turned a blind eye to the problem, not willing to pay the tough consequences of maintaining discipline. Duvenhage stuck by his principles and reminded his team that some things more important than tennis. He suspended the guilty party for the match, forcing the Commodores to forfeit one double match and a singles match.  Despite giving away two points, Vanderbilt upset the Vols, 4-3, making it one of the highlight moments of the season. And in the process, the savvy Duvenhage sent an important signal to present and future Commodores that won’t soon be forgotten. 

With talented newcomers joining the roster this fall, watch out for these Commodores in the future. There are reasons they will be special and they aren’t all found on the court.