Nils Schyllander, the Oregon women’s tennis coach for the past four years, has been named Director of Tennis and will oversee both the men’s and women’s programs.
“I’ve been here for eight years, I have a passion for Oregon tennis and it’s my goal to sustain the success that the program has had in recent years,” Schyllander said.
Schyllander began his coaching career at Oregon as an assistant coach in 1999. In 2003, he was promoted to head coach of the women’s team, and has led the team to six postseason appearances and a top 30 national ranking at one point.
Schyllander said Monica Poveda would be returning as the assistant coach of the women’s team, but he is still looking to hire a men’s assistant coach and an associate director in time for the start of the school year.
The search will close July 24 and interviews will commence in August.
Until he has a full staff in place, Schyllander said he doesn’t know who will lead the day-to-day operations of the men’s and women’s programs next year.
“I’m overall in charge and we’re going to put a quality coaching staff together,” Schyllander said. “I’m looking for someone very upbeat and energetic, who has great communication and a unique personality.
“Every team at this level has talent. A lot of the time, chemistry ends up being the difference between winning 4-3 and losing 3-4.”
Practice for both the men’s and women’s teams is scheduled to begin Sept. 20.
The women’s team lost senior Jamie Marshall to graduation, but will welcome freshmen Simone Templeton and Erika Januskova to the team in the fall. Schyllander said he expects both women to compete for roster spots immediately.
The men’s team lost the senior triumvirate of Thomas Bieri, Markus Schiller and Arron Spencer to graduation. Second-year player Fernando Freitas will not be returning either.
Freitas will istead be playing for Northern Arizona next year.
Incoming freshmen Stephen Wiechert, Geoff Embry, Francisco Gallardo and Marcos Verdasco-Crespo will be joining the men’s team in the fall.
This means that the Duck men will start the 2006-07 season with seven underclassmen and two seniors.
But Schyllander doesn’t think the team’s youth will be a problem.
“Youth is secondary if you have talent,” Schyllander said. “And sometimes youth can even be a good thing because that means they haven’t gone through the college season, and they’ll go out and compete with no fear.”
Schyllander to be director of tennis
Daily Emerald
July 19, 2006
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