GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
The Pepperdine men’s tennis team has been on fire this season, with an undefeated record and an upset of the No.-1 team in the nation, University of Virginia. Head Coach Adam Steinberg has had a lot to do with the way Pepperdine has been playing so far this year.
You’ve only been here for three years, but Pepperdine has jumped from being in the top 30 to the top 10, how have you managed that?
It’s all head coaching, it’s all me (laughs). Well I mean the tradition here has been that perennially we’ve been top 10 for the last 25 years. So, I think the tradition of the program and what Pepperdine tennis has been, it wasn’t that difficult, in terms of the recruiting, to make kids understand that we’ve been in the top10 in the past and we show them the history of our program. It’s all recruiting. When we got here, there was only four players on the team, and we almost started from scratch, and we worked our butts off to get players in here of that caliber to get us back in the top 10. That’s the lifeblood of every program. And for tennis at Pepperdine, it’s a great opportunity for kids to come here and play.
Was there a definite point where the program made the leap?
Yeah, definitely last year was the turning point for us. I think we lost to USC in January; then we went on the 17-match winning streak and everything changed. The confidence level changed. I think the one match that changed everything for us was against Baylor last year at Baylor. We lost 4-3. They were No. 1 in the country and we had the match on our racket, you know. We lost the deciding match. We lost it, but we knew right after that match that we belonged and we could play with any one. I think that was a huge turning point. Right after that match, we didn’t lose for two months. So I think we can point to that match as the turning point.
How different is it being here at a small, private college as opposed to being at Penn State or Alabama?
It’s a different world, a completely different world. I love it here. I mean it’s my dream job and I’ve been doing it for four years. I went to a big school, I coached at big state schools and obviously Pepperdine is much different. It’s very small, it’s very family-oriented. Our athletic department is so close-knit, I love it. Our athletic director is at all our matches or most of them, and I have a great relationship with him whereas at bigger schools it was different. It was more business-like. Here it’s much more close-knit and family-oriented, which I love. Obviously academics and class sizes and everything is different. It’s smaller and it’s more together, and I think the Olympic sports here get a lot of attention where they didn’t at those schools, which I like. Tennis is supported really well. I couldn’t be happier.
You guys have started to get some pretty big crowds. Do you think they’re coming because you’re putting out a great product or do you think there’s been some sort of attitude change?
Free hot dogs (laughs). I think there’s an attitude change. I think our success has definitely helped. The guys, the way they fight, the way they compete out there and the energy they bring, brings people to our matches. I tell them that all the time. And just the winning. Winning brings fans. Last year we had a lot of success at home. We were undefeated. We had a lot of amazing matches here and kids remember. They gravitate toward our team because of that. It’s nice, it’s really nice, we need it.
Against Virginia when they were ranked No. 1, you guys looked like world-beaters. How does that continue for the rest of the season?
We gained a lot of confidence from it. And the guys have just been working hard in practice, not getting too high on ourselves will help us through. I think yesterday we had the best practice of the year. My job is just to keep the guys on the ground. I think if we go out thinking we can just show up and win, it’s not going to happen. I know it’s cliché, but we need to work harder. We have been doing that and Per (Nilsson) and I have been helping the guys in practice. We’ve been relentless on the little things, focused on details and working hard and getting better. We definitely need to get better, without a doubt. If we do that, I think we can continue and we can beat anybody.
What is the ultimate goal of the team, both this year and for the program in the future?
The ultimate goal for us every year is to win a national title. That’s why I came to Pepperdine, that’s why I love coaching here, to be No. 1. Every day we train that way and that’s our ultimate goal every year up here. We want to win it all. That’s how I recruit and that’s what I tell the recruits. If you come to Pepperdine, we want you to play for a national championship, to compete for one like a lot of our other teams at Pepperdine do. So that’s what it’s all about.
01-26-2006