The University of Mississippi Athletics
A Homecoming for Poole and Jones
10/13/2017 | Women's Tennis
By Kim Ling
Communications Specialist
As Ole Miss celebrates Homecoming this week, two Rebel standouts are happy to be back on the courts at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center, where they left their mark, one 10 years ago and the other just a couple of years ago.
Robbye Poole and Julia Jones joined the women's tennis program this fall, the former as assistant coach and the latter as the volunteer coach. Both bring outstanding credentials and head coach Mark Beyers is excited to add their championship pedigree.
"I couldn't be more excited to have both Robbye and Julia here to help this program continue to get better and be in the conversation for an SEC and NCAA title," Beyers said. "As Rebel greats, they both have put so much into this program as players, and now they get to continue that as coaches."
Poole's path began 10 years ago on the Rebel men's tennis team. An All-American and two-time All-SEC honoree, Poole concluded his Ole Miss career helping lead the Rebels to the SEC Tournament title, their seventh SEC West title, the NCAA Elite Eight and a final national ranking of No. 6 in 2008.
He graduated from Ole Miss in 2008 with a degree in business and set out to try and make a life on the professional tour.
Poole won two singles and three doubles futures titles in his playing career before retiring and later becoming 23-time Grand Slam Champion Serena Williams' hitting partner.
For the last two and a half years, Poole has had a front row seat to the greatest women's tennis player in the history of the game. Poole helped Williams win four grand slam titles and learned a lot that he hopes to share with today's players.
"I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, whether it was for 10 years or one week," Poole said. "I've seen it all and I have a clear view of how to make players better. I understand what it takes to be great, the preparation and focus and everything that goes into it."
Poole got to experience professional tennis from both sides, but says the college game has always been something he longed to be part of again.
"You can't beat the team atmosphere in college tennis," he said. "It's different when you're playing in a futures event with no one watching and playing on a team in front of 500 people. You have that cohesiveness, you travel together, root for each other, lose together and win together. Not to mention a great university comes with it."
The Rebels returned six of their top seven this year and added one of the top five recruits in college tennis. Poole is looking forward to helping take the program to the next level."
"I see myself as a very diligent person who works hard, and I want to bring that work ethic to the girls. I think we can be very good. For me, if we're not top 10 in the country with the talent we have, then I'll be disappointed, and I believe Mark would say the same thing."
Jones enjoyed an outstanding career for the Rebels from 2012-15 including earning All-America honors as a senior in 2015 and finishing the year ranked No. 12 in the nation in singles. She was named the 2015 ITA National Most Improved Player of the Year and the ITA Southern Region Senior of the Year.
A two-time All-SEC honoree, Jones helped the Rebels to four straight NCAA appearances during her career. In addition, Jones became the seventh player in program history to achieve 100 career wins.
Off the court, Jones was a tremendous student-athlete earning ITA Scholar-Athlete honors all four years and being named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll every year. She graduated in 2015 with honors in accountancy and is working on her masters in accountancy while serving as the volunteer coach.
"Once I decided that I was going to come back to school, I gave Mark a call and let him know that I was interested in working with the team if the opportunity arose," Jones said.
At the time, Rebel alum Bo Petro was serving as the volunteer coach, but he decided to take a job in Nashville, so when the opportunity presented itself, Jones jumped on it.
"It's been good so far," Jones said. "Having Robbye here has been different, but it's a good change. He brings a lot of passion and motivation to the team and I like working with him. He has a lot of experience, especially working with Serena."
After graduation, Jones played on the pro circuit for a year and won her first professional singles title in Egypt in the summer of 2015. She achieved a career-high ranking of 423, but decided that numbers off the court were her future.
"It was a very good experience and I learned a lot about myself," Jones said. "Lifestyle-wise, it's very difficult, because you're traveling constantly, but at the same time, I had the opportunity to see a lot of places that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to for a long time, if I had taken a job in accounting right away."
While every member of the team is new to Poole, Jones is familiar with a couple of the players, who were freshmen when she was a senior, including All-American Arianne Hartono and Natalie Suk.
"It's a little weird, because Ari and Nat were freshmen when I was a senior. It's great to work with the girls and cool to learn from Mark and Robbye. I enjoy coaching and it's definitely something I'll keep in mind if I decide I don't like accounting and want to come back to coaching."
"There aren't many programs around the country that can say they have two former top 400 players in the world on their staff," Beyers said. "Both Robbye and Julia understand what it takes to make that jump from good junior, to good college player, to pro tennis player. A lot of players we recruit have aspirations of playing on the pro tour. Between the grueling SEC schedule and the amazing experience of these coaches, I believe we can be the perfect place for players to prepare themselves for that career and at the same time have the opportunity to get an amazing college degree."
The Rebels are off this weekend and return to action next weekend at the ITA Southern Regional Championships in Auburn, Alabama.
Players Mentioned
