Double edge
by Derek Smith, MA '05
Baylor's Tennis coaches build impressive trophy collection
The reporter actually laughed at Matt Knoll. Out loud. Shortly after accepting the job as men’s tennis coach at Baylor University, a local reporter asked him about his future goals for the program. Matt Knoll wasn’t coming to Baylor just to keep the program’s head above water, so he answered honestly: a national championship. That’s when the reporter started laughing. Only after realizing that Knoll was serious did he write it on his notepad.
In fairness, a national title probably did seem unlikely to that reporter in 1996. Baylor Tennis had gone winless in conference play seven of the eight seasons prior to Knoll’s arrival and Baylor had just ascended to the Big 12, which promised tougher competition. They played their matches in downtown Waco on city courts where the players outnumbered the fans.
That’s what the reporter saw. But Matt Knoll had a vision for Baylor Tennis, a vision that included trophies and titles and new facilities. Six years later, he brought Joey Scrivano into that vision, and the women soon dominated the Big 12 along with the men.
Twenty-two Big 12 regular season trophies, 15 Big 12 tournament titles and one national championship later, the Baylor men’s and women’s tennis teams are among the nation’s elite, the Hurd Tennis Center is recognized among the best in the nation and as Baylor prepares to host the 2015 NCAA Tennis Championships, no one is laughing at Matt Knoll’s vision anymore.
The two captains of this success, men’s coach Matt Knoll and women’s coach Joey Scrivano have led their programs to unprecedented territory and their teams’ dual accomplishments have taken on the quality of iron sharpening iron.
“What Matt has done here is one of the greatest turnaround stories in college athletics,” Scrivano said. “Tennis is a sport that doesn’t get a lot of press, so people don’t realize what a brilliant coach he is, but I put it right there with any turnaround job out there.”
Scrivano’s admiration for the man who brought him to Baylor in 2002 is reciprocated by Knoll.
“He’s the best women’s coach in the country, and his record speaks for itself,” Knoll said. “Everything he’s done here has been tremendous, and we’re lucky to have him. The synergy between our two programs is really special. A lot of men’s and women’s tennis programs, as funny as it seems, have an adversarial relationship. Joey and I are just the opposite.”
Together, they own more conference championship trophies than every other men’s and women’s tennis coaches in Big 12 history—12 regular season and eight Big 12 conference championships for Knoll, and 10 regular season and seven Big 12 conference championships for Scrivano. This year, they again both claimed regular season and tournament Big 12 titles—the fourth time the men and women have swept both in the same year.
Still, to compete nationally was one thing—to win a national title was something that had never before been done at Baylor. On a May night in 2004 in Tulsa, Okla., the Bears defeated UCLA 4-0 to claim the school’s first national title, changing the perceptions of what a coach could get done at Baylor University.
“It was a huge milestone for the entire University,” Ian McCaw, Baylor director of athletics, said. “I think it was a message to our entire coaching staff that Baylor can be the best. I think maybe prior to that people weren’t sure. It propelled our athletic program to a point where other teams have been able to come on and achieve national success.”
And now, 10 years after their first national title, Baylor Tennis looks forward to the chance to reach another milestone, one no one else at Baylor has ever accomplished. A little under a year from now, they could win a national title on campus. In December, the NCAA awarded the 2015 NCAA Tennis Championships to Baylor University, bringing top programs from across the nation to campus over a two-week span.
“The two biggest reasons we were selected to host, I think, were the quality of our facilities and the strength of our bid,” Ian McCaw said. “Having the Hurd Tennis Center and the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center, we believe, collectively provides us with the best facilities in the country.”
The Hurd Tennis Center and the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center are examples of the game-changing potential of buildings. Built in 2001, the Hurd Tennis Center has grown through steady improvements made possible by gifts from former Baylor tennis player, Oracle president and Baylor Regent Mark Hurd (BBA ’79) and his wife, Paula. Their generous support has led to improvements in the Hurd Tennis Building, which houses the tennis offices and locker room (not to mention their formidable trophy case), as well as a new scoreboard, VIP seating and shaded seating alongside the courts—all made with an eye toward someday hosting a national championship.
The next step in landing the championship came when the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center opened in 2013. After years of having to find somewhere else to play or practice when it rained, Baylor Tennis could finally stay on campus and utilize another of the nation’s finest facilities. Longtime Baylor benefactors Jim (BBA ’58) and Nell (ABC) Hawkins provided the generous lead gift to the building that finally made year-round play possible for Baylor—the final piece in the championship-hosting puzzle. Those facilities on the Baylor campus will be the epicenter of the collegiate tennis world May 14-25, 2015, and will provide the region with an economic boost.
“To have people like that who are friends, who have made the decision to support something that you care so much about, that’s special,” Knoll said. “Hosting takes you to another level. I’m not a genius, but the Georgia men have won five national championships, and four of them have been at Georgia. So you know, that’s a pretty big deal.”
When the national championship trophies are presented next year, the winning team will receive them tantalizingly close to Baylor’s well-stocked trophy case, just up the stairs and in the lobby. Once the NCAA brings the 2015 trophies to town next year, the Bears could make sure they never leave campus. For Baylor, that might be the sweetest vision of them all.