Camel Tennis Teams Ready for 2011 Season: Chris O’Brien prepares for his first full season as head coach

Head coach Chris O'Brien. Photo by Amelia Smith.

Even though Old Man Winter has rendered the courts of south campus unusable, the men’s and women’s tennis teams are already warming up and getting pumped for the fast-approaching spring 2011 season.

“Our goal is to play beyond last season,” said Michael DeCorato ’13. After a rocky past few seasons, the teams are looking toward the spring to make a big turnaround in their game.

The team’s most significant change is the addition of coach Chris O’Brien in the spring 2010 season. O’Brien was hired as an interim coach after the sudden departure of former head coach Paul Hutch and was soon after hired as full time coach of both men’s and women’s tennis and men’s squash.

O’Brien has coached for over fourteen years at schools such as Roger Williams and the University of Rochester and has been playing an active role in getting the team on track towards a successful season.

“I had always been eager to find a [full time] coaching position where I could just focus in on coaching, and was excited about the opportunity to come,” O’Brien said. “I’m really looking forward to getting back to an institution like Conn that is academically rigorous with athletic potential.”

O’Brien was hired a week before the start of last year’s spring season and was pleased with the state of the teams when he arrived. “They were motivated to have something new and different…definitely a good core group of athletes to work with,” said O’Brien.

Such an attitude has made the coaching transition an easy one for the teams, and the coaching style of O’Brien is a welcome change.

“Chris is definitely more of a technical coach,” DeCorato said. “I think that’s really going to help.”

In addition to focusing more on technique improvement, O’Brien has also ratcheted up the team’s conditioning routine. “He’s really good on fitness and keeping us in shape, it definitely improves our tennis game,” said Brittney Cangemi ’13 as she cranked up a net in Luce Fieldhouse for a hitting session.

The team does dynamic warm-ups before every practice session, in addition to regular intensive cardio such as hill sprints and sessions with Coach Wuyke.

Overall, the team is being pushed to their limits, which is crucial to improving their performance this season. They are currently ranked in the bottom half of NESCAC, which is notoriously competitive for tennis. Schools ranked in the top three of the league are also within the top ten in the nation and regularly win nationals.

Nonetheless, the Camels still have a shot at improving their standing in NESCAC this season under O’Brien’s guidance. With more players returning from playing another fall sport or studying abroad, there is a lot of excitement for the spring.

O’Brien cited improving the team rankings and having new players start to step up their game as central aims for the season.

“We want to continue to chip away at NESCAC schools and also keep building from the ground up and have newer players working their way to start impacting the team,” he said. “Building depth is a huge piece of what I’m trying to accomplish.”

O’Brien also emphasizes senior leadership, and since the teams will be losing several senior players after this season, their guidance is essential to bringing the younger members up to a higher level.

Members of the women’s team seemed confident in a successful spring season as they trained together last Tuesday. “Last year we were kind of a new team. I think this year we have more depth and we’re looking to turn things around,” said Sara Krivoshek ’13.

Players seemed confident in improving their NESCAC ranking from last season. “There were definitely a lot of close ones last year,” Cangemi said.

With the season underway, there is confidence in the team’s potential, but also a need for more preparation before the first ball is served. “Each season is so different you never really know what’s going to happen,” said DeCorato. “People are getting ready to play and we need to see where we are as a team.” •