Women's Collegiate Coach of the Year Making a racket : Hegarty leads Razorbacks to best UA women's tennis season ever
Posted on Monday, January 5, 2009
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Arkansas women's tennis head coach Michael Hegarty is the Northwest Arkansas Times Women's Collegiate Coach of the Year.
No Arkansas Razorbacks coach had a more successful year in 2008 than women's tennis coach Michael Hegarty.
Hegarty's Razorbacks had what was arguably the best season in the program's history last spring. The Razorbacks were 17-9 overall, 7-4 in the powerful Southeastern Conference: 7-4 and 3-0 in Regional play. Arkansas also had a strong 12-9 record against ranked opponents.
For those accomplishments, Hegarty is the Northwest Arkansas Times' Collegiate Coach of the Year.
Arkansas not only won the SEC Western Division but also finished the season ranked 17th in the nation, but more importantly advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 7 UCLA.
Senior Aurelija Miseviciute is not only Arkansas' No. 1 player, but she is also the nation's toprated competitor going into the 2009 season.
Last spring she went further in the individual NCAA Championships than any other Lady Razorback by making the Final Four. She and doubles mate Ela Kaluder went to the third round before falling.
Miseviciute won her second consecutive ITA National Indoor Singles Championship and dropped just one of her 17 matches during the fall.
Women's tennis started and finished its fall season right where it left off last spring with an impressive run. As a team, the women completed their fall tournaments 61-20 in singles action and 26-11 in doubles.
Sophomore Anouk Tigu and senior Nanar Airapetian finished their fall 8-3 in doubles action, including a championship at the ITA Central Region Tournament.
But as fantastic as Arkansas played last season and the fall, Hegarty, a native of Australia and graduate of Auburn is expecting even more from his squad this season.
"Our goal in the conference is no less than winning the championship," Hegarty said matter of factly. "That's what we are shooting for."
It won't hurt that goal that Arkansas' will host the SEC Women's Tennis Championships April 23-26 at their state-of-the-art tennis palace, the Billingsly Center.
Arkansas also hosts the ITA Preseason Tournament Jan. 31, giving them homecourt advantage in the two biggest events they will play in prior to the NCAA Championships.
Arkansas earned the right to host the ITA by playing well this season. As for the SEC Tournament, it was totally a coincidence that Arkansas' turn in the conference-wide rotation fell during the exact season the program has potentially its best team in history.
"Our schedule sets us up to achieve some big things this spring," Hegarty said. "Being able to host both the ITA and SEC Championships will hopefully prove advantageous to our chances in those two premier events."
It's been a five-year journey for Hegarty and Arkansas' women's tennis program to reach this point.
"Opportunities to coach at a program like Arkansas usually don't come along when things are going well," said Hegarty, who served a year as an assistant to longtime Razorbacks men's tennis coach Robert Cox. "Coaches who win at Arkansas, usually stay. Fayetteville and the campus have a great atmosphere.
"You have the opportunity to build a great program here and win at the highest level. It's not easy. Winning is always a challenge, but we have all the tools to win here and that's in every sport."
Atmosphere and the opportunity to build a winner at Arkansas is not only what brought Hegarty, who had worked as a men's assistant at Kentucky and Florida and the head coach at Fresno State, back to the UA but also to women's tennis.
"It was never my intention to coach women's tennis," Hegarty said. "It really wasn't a consideration until Bev Lewis, UA associate athletics director, called me. Robert [Cox] gave me a strong recommendation.
"I was unsure at first. I'm an intense coach. I wasn't sure how far I could push female athletes. But the opportunity to run my own program, where I knew I could build a winner was too great to pass up.
"Now, I would never go back to coaching men. I don't want to and don't know if I would know how."
Hegarty, who is a huge college football fan, did allow that the differences in coaching men and women at the college level are negligible.
"The techniques, fundamentals, tactics and skills of the sport are the same," Hegarty said. "But the secret to coaching, I think anything, is establishing the discipline to do things the right way consistently and then motivation."
Hegarty said he's learned a great deal coaching at the UA from his protégés.
"This is a great environment for a coach," Hegarty said. "The resources here. Just getting to be around coaches like Robert [Cox}, Lance Harter [UA women's track coach] and John McDonnell [the legendary former UA men's track coach] is a real learning experience.
"And then you have Razorbacks fans, who are so great with the support they offer. This really is a special place."
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