Twin brothers Alex and Dillon Braud may have graduated from LSU last year, but after building the club tennis team into a national title contender, they will not soon be forgotten.
Competitive tennis players from a young age, the brothers immediately started looking for an opportunity to continue playing upon arriving at LSU in the fall of 2008. What they found was a talented club team that lacked any discernible organization.
Alex said the club lost a chance to compete at the United States Tennis Association Tennis on Campus Nationals in 2006 because of a lack of funds and a failure to turn in paperwork on time.
With the help of fellow leader Nick Lucidi, the twins took the reins and started overhauling the structure of the club as well as the attitude of its members.
Alex said each year brought improvement for the club, as it traveled more often and farther from Baton Rouge.
The club finally burst onto the national scene in spring of 2012 when it brought home fourth place at USTA Southern Sectionals and with it a bid to Nationals.
The awards continued into the fall as Alex was named Louisiana Tennis on Campus Leader of the Year, and the team was recognized as the Club of the Year both for Louisiana and the USTA Southern section. Lucidi joined both brothers to accept the accolades.
“The Southern section is by far the largest of the USTA sections, so it was an honor for Dillon, Nick and I to go to the banquet in Atlanta to be recognized,” Alex said.
While Lucidi held the title of president until he graduated in spring of 2012, the three operated as equals, feeding off each others ideas and constantly working to better the club.
“Tennis is their life and this club is their baby. They created it, so they don’t want to see it fail,” club treasurer, coastal environmental science and biology senior Jonathan Lambert said.
Their awareness of their eventual graduation allowed the trio to start preparing younger members to take the reins. University Recreation Sport and Camp Programs Coordinator Zach Wood said these efforts set up the club to continue to grow and that he is not concerned about the club faltering.
While building a competitive team was always the goal, the trio believed the club members’ relationships off the court were just as important as their abilities with a racket.
“It was more than just tennis,” Lambert said. “They always tried to get people to go to dinner after or go to Chimes trivia after. They wanted us to be friends.”
Biology senior Haley Everett said the clubs’ closeness makes for a better experience than opponents whose teams only get together for tournaments and practices.
Even now that they have all graduated, Alex, Dillon and Lucidi continue to offer support to current officers. Club president and history senior Theo Kennedy said he receives regular emails from the twins, and visited Lucidi in San Francisco over the summer.
Alex said there is a simple explanation for his continued interest in the club: He is a competitive person.
“I want LSU club tennis to be the best in every way possible,” Alex said. “It’s that competitive drive from Nick, Dillon, and I that led [the club] to where [it] is today. It’s a passion of ours and the only way [the club] can keep improving is if that passion is continuously passed on. Hopefully, it’s contagious and addictive.”