Michael McNeil had a chance to sit down and talk with women’s coach Tony Minnis about himself and this year’s team.
Question: Who was your role model growing up?
Tony Minnis: “My parents. My dad started me out in tennis. Actually, it’s really embarrassing now, but I really liked [John] McEnroe. He’s not much older [than me], but I played a similar game style as he did.”
Q: What was your best accomplishment during your playing career?
TM: “From an individual standpoint, being the winningest player in my school’s [ULL] history. But from a team standpoint, I think the fact that we were top 20 in the nation basically my whole career. ULL was a smaller school but we were still able to beat a lot of the SEC schools.”
Q: What has been your best accomplishment to date as a coach?
TM: “The two Sweet 16 [appearances in the NCAA Tournament]. In one of them, Pepperdine was sixth in the country, and we upset them.”
Q: Did you really believe in the middle of this season that this year’s team would make the NCAA Tournament?
TM: “Of course I did. I think this group has an opportunity to do really well, simply because of the fact that when Amanda [Mang] got hurt, it was a situation where you either step up and raise the level of play or get ready for next year. I think when we beat Tulane, we had a great shot to get in.”
Q: What do you think led to this team’s resurgence at the end of the season?
TM: “Just understanding and starting to believe. I think that once they understood what it took to be successful, they completely did a 360.”
Q: What is this team’s best characteristic?
TM: “Character and work ethic. That’s going to take them a long way. That’s what we’ve lacked the last couple years. It’s nice to see it back again because those are the components that you look for among quality teams.”
Q: What are some of your goals for this team next season?
TM: “Even though we didn’t accomplish it this year, it’s always our goal to be top 25. This team will be good enough next year to be a top 25 team. So our goals will be to win the SEC West and give us a chance to win the SEC championship. Also, we want to make the NCAA [Tournament], hopefully host [the regional] and make the Sweet 16.”
Q: If you win a national title, will you feel completely fulfilled as a coach?
TM: “Yeah, that would obviously be very fulfilling. But I think that the biggest goal I have as a coach is to get every kid to play up to their potential. I think that once you concentrate in that area, winning SEC Titles and national titles takes care of itself.”
Q: Who would win in a match — you or men’s tennis coach Jeff Brown?
TM: “I’ll have to give it to Brown. Jeff is very good, and we played at the same time. We never played each other, but I played guys on his team. I’ll have to give it to Jeff.”