It's a late night blog post for you guys. It was a night of celebration for all of the student athletes on hand as well as the coaches and tennis programs in general. The NCAA held its annual banquet tonight and we were treated to a special occasion.
First off, the NCAA presented awards to all of the teams. Included in each package was a portfolio folder, wristbands and bag tags, and a laptop case. All with the NCAA insignia. Very nice indeed and items sure to be used by all recipients. A nice dinner was prepared with salad, potatoes, garlic bread, chicken marsala and steak; not to mention a choice of delicious desserts. My choice of course was to sample them all!
Our guest speaker for the evening was Natalie Spilger, professional soccer player for the Chicago Fire. Natalie gave an interesting speech about her passion of "
green" environmentally conscious behavior. She certainly had passion and energy for sure...and not too shabby to look at either.
Next up was the presentation of the
ITA National Awards. All regional award winners were invited to come forward and collect their awards, followed by the announcement of the National winner. I had outlined all of our Regional winners in an earlier post, but I have some great news to report. Alex Grubin won the National Senior Player of the Year NCAA II! A deserved honor for sure. I am so proud of Alex and his plentiful contributions to our program and college tennis. In addition, yours truly was graciously awarded the National Assistant Coach of the Year NCAA II. It is still hard to believe for sure. I must say that it is nice to be recognized by my peers and I am very thankful. Also, many thanks to my players for making me look good, the athletic department for supporting me, Coach Neil for letting me do what it is that I do, and to my family who let me pursue my passion ahead of many other important functions.
A little further celebration in the form of a "coaches meeting" with Coaches Schwartz, Tasso, SoFresh, and Neil in the Hilton lounge was to follow. Good times and good friends. That is a strong part of my enjoyment of this whole coaching thing.
We plan to rise early tomorrow for breakfast and to watch the Clipper ladies play. Their match time is set for 8am so I better wrap it up here soon. Not only this, but I don't want to make any additional noise as Coach Pampulov and his lovely family with two young children are right next door.
Well, I hope we are ready for tomorrow. It is a little strange this year as we are the hunted and no longer the hunter. I hope we get the job done.
Nuff said...
