No other sport on LSU’s campus relies more on out-of-state and international talent than men’s tennis.
With seven of its 14 players coming from overseas, the men’s tennis team rivals only the men’s swimming and diving team, which has eight international members on its 32-man roster, for the most culturally diverse athletic squad at LSU. The Tigers currently have players from countries including Australia, England, Hungary and Ireland.
A shallow talent pool available on the bayou has forced LSU coaches to look abroad to keep a competitive edge.
“Louisiana isn’t as deep of a tennis state as places like Florida or Georgia, and with tennis being such a worldwide sport, you’re recruiting the whole world,” said LSU tennis coach Jeff Brown. “So for us, recruiting means going out of the state [and country] for the most part to fill our roster for the talent level that we need to compete in our conference and in the NCAA.”
LSU coaches are often forced to make several road trips during the year to places such as Miami. They scout tournaments like the Junior Orange Bowl for the abundance of up-and-coming talent that can’t ordinarily be found in Louisiana. Florida also hosts one of America’s other major junior tournaments, the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in Bradenton, Fla.
Brown and other coaches from around the United States also travel to England during Wimbledon for the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative, an event created in 2001 that allows some of the most promising junior players in England to perform in front of large crowds who come to watch the pro tournament.
Traveling overseas has become a normal occurrence for Brown, who has been to Europe several times during his 15-year tenure as the Tigers’ head coach.
“I’ve been to other countries to meet the parents and see the kid in their own environment, and you see how they interact with others,” Brown said. “If you’re investing a lot of money into a kid, you want to try to get the best read you can off of them.”
For LSU, one of the many challenges of recruiting outside of Louisiana is to make the Baton Rouge campus and atmosphere stand out above Southeastern Conference rivals such as Alabama and Ole Miss.
“If it’s an international kid, the first thing that draws them to United States is the opportunity to play college sports, because they don’t have that [in Europe],” Brown said. “[At] LSU, specifically, you can see how much we’ve invested in athletic programs from the academic center to the training rooms to facilities themselves, so they can see the great commitment, and if they come for a football game day, they can see the passion of our fan base.”
 
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Contact Ian Fontenot at [email protected]