It was early May, and the UCLA men’s tennis team was
primed for yet another NCAA Tournament run. The Bruins were in
Westwood, busily preparing themselves both mentally and physically
for the long road that awaited them.
The team’s chemistry was fantastic. The physical health of
the players was the best it had been all season. Nothing, it
seemed, could distract the Bruins from the task at hand.
But then the bomb dropped, leaving in its wake tremendous
bitterness, unanswered questions, and a looming cloud of
controversy over the collegiate tennis landscape.
“It really made life horrible,” UCLA coach Billy
Martin said.
The amateur eligibility of a number of international players,
including UCLA’s Tobias Clemens, was brought into question
just before the tournament was to begin. It was alleged by several
coaches that some players from Europe had sacrificed their amateur
status by competing in professional European leagues and accepting
prize money that exceeded their expenses. Had the allegations been
true, nearly a dozen players would have been forced to sit out the
tournament.
UCLA’s title hopes would have been dashed. Baylor, then
the nation’s third-ranked team, would have had to undergo a
complete lineup overhaul.
As it turned out, no one was forced to sit out any matches. But
the stress and uncertainty UCLA had to deal with in securing the
correct documentation to prove that rules had not been broken was a
major disturbance.
“We were up at one or two in the morning, which is nine or
ten in the morning in Europe, just so we could talk to the right
people and get the right documentation,” Martin said.
“The players should have been home, asleep, doing the things
they needed to do.”
Clemens’s clearance came just before first-round play was
set to begin, and the rest of the tournament proceeded with a
distinct aura of bitterness and anger. Once the Bruins reached the
Sweet 16, held in Athens, Ga., college tennis appeared to have
taken an ugly turn. American players were pitted against
international players, and teams predominately composed of
Americans against teams predominately composed of
internationals.
Last year’s tournament is something of a microcosm of a
large point of discussion in the college tennis world. Eight of the
current top 10 players are from outside the United States, leaving
many Americans to wonder what happened to all the spots that were
there 10 to 15 years ago. Some coaches wonder why their colleagues
focus their recruiting practices on international players. And many
international players simply wonder what the big fuss is all
about.
TROUBLE IN ATHENS
After UCLA won its first two tournament matches last season, the
team journeyed cross-country to Georgia, where they joined the
likes of Baylor, Illinois, Stanford and Vanderbilt in the Sweet
16.
Just before the Bruins were to face Oklahoma State in their
first match in Georgia, allegations were once more brought against
Clemens. Martin and the German were again forced to contact Germany
to receive paperwork saying that Clemens had not surrendered his
amateur status.
It was generally thought at the time that Illinois coach Craig
Tiley was the man who initiated the investigation, a charge Tiley
has since denied. Tiley said he and several other coaches,
including Tim Cass of Texas A&M, Michael Center of Texas, and
Bob Bayliss of Notre Dame, had submitted information they had on
the possible ineligibility of European players. Tiley said he
submitted his information in the fall of 2002, while other coaches
submitted their documents in the spring of 2003. In any event,
Martin was very suspicious of the timing of the investigation.
“To me, (Tiley) can say whatever he wants, but in my
conscience there’s no doubt that the few coaches who were
doing that did it at an optimal time and tried to stick it to
us,” Martin said.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it for the Bruins in
Georgia.
Vanderbilt, the team that came from behind to defeat UCLA in a
marathon semifinal match, started a roster composed solely of
American players. The Vanderbilt fans, therefore, took it upon
themselves to put on a callous display of patriotism in the
team’s quarterfinal and semifinal matches against Baylor and
UCLA.
Last season, Baylor had five international players in its
starting six, while UCLA also started five international
athletes.
The Vanderbilt fans attended matches with American flags,
chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A,” and made insulting comments to
the international players. It was an immature display that deeply
saddened Clemens.
“It hurts me,” Clemens said. “For me,
it’s very irritating that a country can have so much
patriotism, because it can easily turn into hate. In Georgia, I
think it turned over to hate toward the foreigners.”
UCLA assistant coach Jason Sher, himself a native of South
Africa, could hardly believe the classless display.
“It’s just pretty sad,” Sher said. “They
need to realize that all of these kids have been given a great
opportunity to play college tennis and get a degree.”
But many people don’t realize it, and the incredible
prevalence of international players on the college tennis scene has
plenty of people talking. There is talk that international players
are too old, too professional, and too foreign. There is also talk
that they are taking spots away from Americans who deserve them
more. And unfortunately, it is talk that will likely continue
without resolution.
THE APPEARANCE OF INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS
About 10 to 15 years ago, more and more players began coming
overseas to join American college ranks. Before the influx,
international players were certainly not absent from the game
entirely, but their presence wasn’t nearly as apparent as it
is today.
Currently, Mississippi and Baylor, ranked No. 2 and No. 3
respectively, have no American starters in their lineups. Eight
teams in the top 10, including UCLA, have international players
comprising at least half of their starting lineups.
Martin, now in his eleventh season at the helm of UCLA
men’s tennis, has seen the progression toward more and more
international players, an influx he explains with the increase in
the popularity of tennis worldwide.
Because there is so much money available to professional tennis
players, Martin feels that parents in other countries are pushing
their children to play tennis rather than other sports like soccer,
which they may have played in the past.
“All of a sudden you have really good athletes playing
tennis, much more than we used to have,” Martin said.
After rising in the ranks of their respective countries, these
international players either make the decision to play
professionally or explore other avenues, including the American
university system.
“All of a sudden word gets out that this is the greatest
opportunity for a young kid to be able to come over and play top
collegiate athletics, get a great education, and sometimes have it
paid for,” Martin said. “You cannot do that in almost
all of the other countries in the world.”
Sher, in his fifth year as the Bruin assistant coach, was one
who took advantage of the opportunities provided by the United
States. He played at UCLA from 1990-1993.
“American college is unique in the respect that it is the
only university system in the world where you can play tennis and
study at a high level,” Sher said.
Collegiate tennis has served as a great beacon for those
international players who maybe were not at the absolute top of the
rankings in their home countries, and consequently would not have
had much financial success on the professional tennis circuit. But
their level of play was, and is, undoubtedly higher than the level
of second-tier American players, and the result has been a huge
jump in the quality of college tennis.
CHANGES IN THE TENNIS LANDSCAPE
Nearly everyone in the college tennis world agrees that
international players have raised the level of play
tremendously.
Martin has seen it most clearly in the ability of players at the
No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 positions. International players and highly
ranked Americans now occupy those positions, which had generally
been occupied by less-talented American players in the past.
“No. 6 is just so much better than it used to be,”
Martin said. “Now everybody has great players, one through
six.”
Other coaches feel the same way.
Dick Gould, winner of 17 national championships as the coach at
Stanford, has never had an international player on scholarship in
Palo Alto. But he recognizes what they have done for the game.
“It’s really saved college tennis,” Gould
said. “It’s made our players better as well, playing
against better players.”
Gould feels that more and more young Americans are choosing to
go pro, leaving the pool of college American players relatively
diluted.
And though he has never had an international player on
scholarship, he doesn’t perceive himself to be above it in
any way. In fact, when Gould coached at Foothill Junior College in
the 1960s, many of his best players were from abroad.
“I have a ton of respect for them,” he said.
But there are times when the respect isn’t so great. At
Illinois, Tiley’s recruiting policy is to stay domestic, and
he has been critical of the recruiting tactics of other coaches. In
fact, it is largely because of Tiley and his beliefs that there is
a lot of bitterness within the UCLA program.
THE DOMESTIC APPROACH
Craig Tiley, a native of South Africa, is now in his 11th season
at Illinois. Last year, his team accomplished an amazing feat,
winning the NCAA team title with an undefeated record. The No. 1
Fighting Illini have currently won 44 straight matches, with a
streak dating back to last season.
And they’ve done it almost entirely with American players.
Not surprisingly, Tiley considers his team living proof that it can
be done without actively recruiting internationally.
Tiley has made it a conscious policy to recruit American
players. He feels that because Illinois is a state university
within the Big Ten, he owes it to the university and the conference
to first recruit in-state, and then in-country.
“It’s my own decision,” Tiley said. “We
have a developmental focus with players here at
Illinois.”
That’s where Tiley believes his program diverges from many
of the other top programs in the country, programs like UCLA that
recruit many international athletes. The Illinois coach feels many
of the coaches who recruit foreign players are too focused on
winning now, rather than cultivating and developing talent to win
later.
The team’s current success may be proof positive of
Tiley’s strategy.
Since taking the helm at Illinois, Tiley’s teams have
continued to improve, and the Illini now find themselves atop the
tennis world. Tiley feels it is because he has always been
committed to developing players, rather than simply bringing in
athletes that will make an immediate impact. When recruiting young
Americans, Tiley looks at their upside, not so much their current
ability.
“I think that’s wrong (to focus on winning
now),” Tiley said. “That’s not really in the
interest of college tennis. When you focus on winning, that’s
when you lose.”
Tiley, who has had only three international players in his
decade of coaching at Illinois, also believes Americans bring
something to the table that many international players cannot. He
feels that growing up in America and seeing the magnitude and
importance placed on NCAA Championships in basketball and football
instills in young American tennis players a sense of the importance
of the team game. This is a sense that international players simply
don’t have.
“I think it’s totally to our advantage to have
American kids,” Tiley said. “When it comes to the
crunch, there are some intangibles that are tough to
pinpoint.”
While Tiley asserts that other coaches are free to recruit
whomever they want within the rules, he blames college coaches for
the recent decline in top Americans who are choosing to play
college tennis.
“That’s one of the biggest problems right
now,” Tiley said. “I blame the college coaches for
that.
“College coaches should first and foremost be focusing on
development of players in the U.S.”
It was Tiley who pointed out the irony in his recruiting stance,
being that he is a native South African. But now he feels that
American college tennis owes a shot to American junior players. He
also said no matter what happens to the Illinois program, he will
not change his recruiting policies.
“Absolutely I wouldn’t change,” Tiley said.
“Then I’d be selling out to winning.”
STANFORD’S APPROACH
One coach who doesn’t have to sell out to winning,
according to Tiley’s definition, is Dick Gould.
In his tenure at Stanford, Gould has continuously been able to
secure top American tennis players. He said he always tries to go
after the top 5 American high school seniors in the country. And
more often than not, he has been able to get them.
“Stanford is the hardest school for us to recruit
against,” said Martin, who believes it is the goal of every
UCLA athletic program to compete for a national title every year.
“For many years, it was probably the only school I felt that
we really couldn’t go head-to-head with for a while, full
scholarship for full scholarship with the top kids.”
According to UCLA Associate Athletic Director Michael
Sondheimer, Stanford is the reason UCLA has made it something of
priority to recruit international players.
“We have no choice,” he said. “Stanford can
get anyone they want.”
But it might not always be that way. If more and more young
Americans continue to turn professional, Stanford too may have to
look beyond the United States’s borders. It is something that
Gould, who said that he will take an American player over an
international player, other things equal, would not be totally
against.
“I would never say never,” he said.
And it’s something Martin foresees happening, quite
frankly.
“Eventually, almost all of the teams are going to have to
recruit some foreign kids to really stay at the top,” he
said.
THE YOUNG AMERICAN’S PERSPECTIVE:
Perhaps the most telling aspect of the magnitude of this entire
situation is the perspective of the young American tennis player,
the player most likely to have lost a spot because of the influx of
international players.
Currently playing at the No. 6 singles position for UCLA is
sophomore Chris Surapol, a native of Bellflower. Surapol had an
incredible career at Whitney High School, where he went 70-0 in
dual match play and won the CIF singles championship in his senior
season. Surapol was ranked No. 37 nationally as a junior.
Last season, he was confined to the bench, and he is likely to
lose his starting position this season when Austrian junior Luben
Pampoulov gains his eligibility for the spring quarter.
“It’s frustrating, but I knew what I was getting
myself into,” Surapol said.
Surapol feels that international players have definitely made
tennis more competitive, but he also feels bad that many Americans
haven’t gotten chances that they may have received
previously.
“It’s hard when things don’t go as
planned,” he said.
Last year was especially difficult for UCLA’s American
freshmen, namely Surapol, Aaron Yovan, and Travis Kinard. They
occupied the No. 8, No. 9, and No. 10 spots on the team, and rarely
saw dual match action.
“Last year was really hard for me, Aaron and
Travis,” Surapol said. “We basically followed the team
around and supported them without really getting any
benefits.”
Surapol said it was a learning experience, and that it was worth
it because he knew there would be an opportunity to challenge Yovan
for the No. 6 spot early this season. For Kinard, the future
didn’t look so bright, and he has since left UCLA to pursue
professional tennis.
“Travis would have been in the seven or eight spot
again,” Surapol said. “He couldn’t handle it. If
it happens two years in a row, it’s just kind of a
waste.”
Martin said he had to be completely honest with Kinard about his
likelihood of playing, an aspect of the job he doesn’t enjoy
at all.
“I’ve had some kids where I’ve just had to be
really honest,” Martin said. “And that’s tough on
some of them.”
Which is exactly where some of the resentment of international
athletes begins to enter the equation.
THE PERVADING RESENTMENT
Most everyone agrees there is a general resentment of
international players in college tennis.
“Of course there is (resentment),” Martin said.
“I’ve gotten that as a coach. Some parents are bitter,
quite honestly. I don’t blame them. I have children,
too.”
“There is definitely some resentment, right or
wrong,” Sher said. “They do resent the foreigners to
some degree.”
“I wish I could say no, but to be very honest there is a
little resentment, especially with the smaller colleges,”
Clemens added.
Surapol has probably seen the most resentment first-hand, as
many of the friends he grew up playing junior tennis with
don’t have spots on top teams because of international
players.
“A lot of my friends from juniors complain about how they
should’ve gone somewhere else,” Surapol said.
“But what can you do?”
One of the main sources of resentment is the age difference
between international players and American players. Surapol will be
21-years-old when he graduates, while Clemens will turn 25 this
August. Because some European students attend high school for one
more year, and many choose to take a year off from school before
attending college, they enter the United States as stronger
players, both mentally and physically.
“With more years of experience, you’re physically
more built,” Surapol said. “That makes a really big
difference nowadays in the tennis game.”
“If you have a kid who’s a 21-year-old freshman,
that’s not really fair,” Gould said.
Surapol also noted that when coaches recruit international
players, domestic players are less likely to be offered a
scholarship. Because students from abroad must make a tremendous
commitment to attend college in the United States, they are more
likely to receive scholarship money as an enticement to come.
Additionally, once those international scholarship players have
arrived, they are more likely to play than Americans who are
receiving little or no money.
“I’m happy to play No. 5 or No. 6,” Surapol
said. “But there’s no reason I should be paying as much
as I do when I could’ve got more somewhere else.”
The Bruin sophomore was offered a partial scholarship from Notre
Dame and a spot on the team at Penn, but he wanted to stay
in-state. At UCLA, only his books are paid for through scholarship
money.
Last year some of the resentment showed at the Los Angeles
Tennis Center, when Virginia came to face the Bruins. Two Virginia
parents, Forrest Stewart and Dennis Rizza, created a melee after
the match, insulting some international players on the UCLA team.
They were angered that their sons, both American freshmen,
didn’t have a chance to play at UCLA.
“It was pretty clear that they were not happy with our
decision,” Sher said.
WHAT NOW?
The current situation in college tennis is not an easy one to
solve.
Tiley contends that his American team has a greater sense of
camaraderie than teams composed of international players. Martin
counters that his Bruins are just as motivated as the next team, as
well as more embracing.
Surapol sometimes wonders how things would be without
international players, but he is happy he has changed his
perspective of the United States after learning about other
cultures. He will continue to accept his role on this UCLA team and
learn from his international teammates.
Clemens, though older than the average senior, speaks of
competition and capitalism. He feels that the American world is one
in which the best person for the job is given a chance, regardless
of race or nationality.
No one really wants questions of eligibility to resurface, but
no one seems to know exactly what the future holds.
Tennis is an international sport, and American collegiate tennis
reflects that. Right or wrong, that is how it will continue to
be.
“Despite all the diversity, we can all get focused on the
same thing and the same goal, and that’s what makes it so
special,” Martin said.
With reports from Colin Yuhl and Jeff Eisenberg, Bruin
Sports senior staff.