As a huge tennis fan and member of the club tennis team, I was very excited for the Rose Café talk from men’s varsity tennis coach Silviu Tanasolu. Coach Tanasolu is a fantastic tennis player and coach, so getting an insight as to how he manages his team was an amazing opportunity. Something that struck me from his talk was how well the varsity athletes manage their time. With 2-3 practices a day and travel on the weekend, it is often difficult to maintain academics with this busy schedule. However, Coach Tanasolu, the assistant coach, and the academic advisors (including our own house professor Garrick!) help the team to complete both their academic requirements and their intense tennis training.

The recruitment aspect of his talk stuck out to me as well. I had considered playing college tennis at several lower ranking Division I colleges and Division II colleges, so I have experienced the recruiting process first hand. Hearing about the recruitment process from the other side was extremely interesting, especially from a coach of one of the top tennis schools in the country. Coach Tanasolu seems to focus largely on character when recruiting a player, as it is important to have a player who will fit in well with the team. Often, many of the players recruited for Cornell have no experience playing in a team environment, as most of their competitions are individual. Coach Tanasolu also pays attention to how the players treat their junior coaches, as this will often reflect how they will treat him at the college level. It is important to have players that will respect their coach and do what is best for the team, so character is very important when selecting players to recruit.