Grove-Side Q&A: Billy Chadwick

This installment of Grove-Side Q&As features Ole Miss men's tennis coach Billy Chadwick. Questions were sent in by fans through OleMissSports.com over the past week and touch on a variety of topics. Grove-Side Q&As are a regular feature on OleMissSports.com and provide Rebel fans interactive opportunites with some of the key figures in Ole Miss athletics.

Q: What is recruiting looking like for next year, and what do you see as the team’s strength next year?

We feel we have the potential to have a team that will be again at the top of the conference and among the top 10 in the country.  We have the top player from Sweden coming in.  We are real high on Tucker Vorster who’s already here on the team and will be returning.  We’ve got Jonas Berg who is playing as well as anybody in the country, as well as Bram ten Berge and Kalle Norberg, coming back.  We feel like we have a great base to work with.  We’ve got a couple of recruits that we are working on that we should get some answers on pretty soon.  We feel very confident that we will have an excellent team next year.

Q: How are the plans to update the tennis facility going, and is there a time frame for beginning construction?

It is still in process, and we are working to come up with the final plans for it. If everything goes well, construction could begin as early as this summer.

Q: Discuss Bram’s status for the rest of this year and next year?

He should be ready for the NCAAs.  Right now he’s hitting, and he is hitting for at least an hour a day.  By the end of this week he should be up to two hours.  We feel like he will be 100 percent by NCAAs.

Q:  Since Jakob has been playing really well and Matthias and Robbye are undefeated in doubles, will Bram go back in the doubles or just play singles?

The great thing about having him back is that it gives us a lot of different options. If we are fortunate enough to make it through to the Sweet Sixteen, we will definitely need him.  Somebody is going to play a match and get pushed so hard, it’s going to be difficult for them to play singles and doubles the next day.  With Jakob starting to really play great tennis, and with us playing good doubles at one two and three, it gives us the chance that if we have to make some adjustments with the lineup that we can.  That can be the difference in taking a championship.

Q: How do you feel about your chances the next time you face Virginia or Ohio State and your quest for a national championship?  

It’s a lot of distance between those particular matches because depending on how the seeds go, we wouldn’t play one of those teams unless we made the Elite Eight or maybe even the Final Four.  The guys feel like we had Ohio State here and that that was a match we should have taken.  We also feel like we played a great match against Virginia when we lost to them.  The guys are looking forward to it and they have the confidence now to where they feel think that they can beat a team of that caliber.

Q: What makes Ole Miss such a great place to play tennis?

Through the years we have developed a reputation of having a national caliber tennis program year after year.  That reputation is what has really helped us to have such a consistent program over a long time period.  The guys love Oxford, it’s a great place.  The Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center is one of the nicest tennis centers in the country.  What makes it nice is that it is a good size where we can pack it.  Also it is really fan friendly, so the fans are right on top of the action.  It is an absolutely beautiful setting. We feel very fortunate that we have a great university, a great town, a great tennis facility and a great reputation.  Those are the ingredients for an outstanding program.    

Q: Do you feel that Mississippi high school tennis will ever become popular enough to be able to recruit within the state more, and what can be done to enhance the chances of juniors to have the opportunity to play in the SEC?

That’s a good question and actually if you look at the crop coming up it’s strong. For example we have one of the top girls in the country Kristi Boxx (coming here next fall).  That is an example of how tennis in Mississippi is being strengthened, and we also see that on the guy’s side. One thing I’m really proud of is that we have different kids that have played for us that are coaching in Mississippi. I think you will see the fruits of that later. Dave Randall is down in Jackson as is Nick Barone. They have junior development programs taking place that are excellent.  You will see tennis from Mississippi pick up on the junior level and start seeing those players on SEC teams.

Q: What are the top five things you look for in a new recruit for tennis?

We check out rankings and how the players play. Most of them we’ve seen play so we know most of them, and we are tracking their results. One of the elements which I think is what has made our team so successful through the years is that we try to make sure that the kids have real strong character. We look for the kind of kids that can get along and become very close team members.  We have four seniors on the team right now, and they’re providing great leadership. They’re also excellent students and that’s another thing we look for.  Usually if a student is taking care of business in the classroom he is going to be taking care of business in all aspects of life including the tennis part. We also access their style of play and determine where they are in terms of progress.  It is not unusual for kids to peak at 15 or 16, so we try to find those players that still have their best tennis ahead of them.  Erling Tveit is a great example of that. When we are looking at character we are looking for kids that will fit in on the team and see the benefit of going to school at a small university. Some people are looking for a much bigger place, but others, if they know what they are looking for, will determine that there are a lot of benefits to being in a true college town.

Q: What can be done to generate a greater interest in collegiate tennis among students and fans of the sport in general?

You can almost use our program as a model. We have been very strong through the years and we have a really great following. The fans have recognized that we have a championship program here at Ole Miss.  If you win, the fans will get behind you.  With a sport like tennis it is taken years and years of being good that now when we have an SEC match we are going to pack it. When we host the NCAA Regionals we’re going to pack it, and it is exciting to develop that kind of following.   The following is a good mixture, because we have students at matches, retirees and people throughout the area that will actually travel to come to the matches. We feel like that is one of the things that we can be proud of and that’s reflected in our attendance rankings. We finished seventh in the country in March in attendance, but with our attendance in April we will probably move up. We are proud of that.

Q: If you weren’t a tennis coach what would you be doing with your life?

I don’t know. That is a great question. I didn’t intend to be a tennis coach forever. I got my MBA here and was actually using coaching as a vehicle to get my MBA.  But once I got my MBA the entire program opened up.   I originally started out coaching the women, but then I became the men’s coach as well.  I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

Q: At what point in your career did you realize that you were a very effective coach and that your methods of coaching were working?

I’ve always been very strong in recruiting and I’ve always enjoyed the recruiting process. That’s one of the big factors in coaching any sport.  You can’t take pretty good players and beat good players that have good coaching. Throughout this league we have great coaches, so it’s not likely in any sport that you’re going to out-coach someone. If you have a gameplan and you have the players to carry it out and your players are better than the other players you’re probably going to win. There are exceptions, because there are always those big calls that the coach gets to make.  The bottom line is that if you are going to consistently win you have to have the players, and I’ve always felt that recruiting was my forte’.  

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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