Women's tennis coach resigns
- Thread starter Moooooo
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10SNE1?
500+ Posts
What's going on with this team?
No recruits have been announced nor posted on www.tennisrecruiting.net, Ryann Foster leaves, and now the Coach leaves.
No recruits have been announced nor posted on www.tennisrecruiting.net, Ryann Foster leaves, and now the Coach leaves.
Texas missed the tourney this season for the first time in forever; even in-state schools like Rice, Houston, and TCU were invited. Yes, I understand she inherited a somewhat unstable program.
But, it took forever for Plonsky to make a hire (August) after Patty Fendick left like 3 months earlier. McNamara lasted 9.5 months. Prior to Texas, she was the head coach at Yale, but took some time off afterwards to devote to her family. Let's see how long it takes Plonsky to hire someone this time; she should really try to hire the Baylor head coach, but ever since all conference realignment TV money and equal revenue sharing, most schools don't lose coaches simply due to salary.
But, it took forever for Plonsky to make a hire (August) after Patty Fendick left like 3 months earlier. McNamara lasted 9.5 months. Prior to Texas, she was the head coach at Yale, but took some time off afterwards to devote to her family. Let's see how long it takes Plonsky to hire someone this time; she should really try to hire the Baylor head coach, but ever since all conference realignment TV money and equal revenue sharing, most schools don't lose coaches simply due to salary.
I'm not sure our AD is committed to winning; more concerned with revenue and LHN.
If you look at her last few hires, they raise some questions about her priorities/requirements for a head coach:
Soccer: Angela Kelly. Was on a downward trend her last few years at Tennessee. Her first two years at Texas resulted in no NCAA tourney invite. Third season, at-large bid to NCAA tourney, and one win. That means we are a Top 32 program.
Swimming: Carol Capitani. She was an assistant coach at Georgia. She was able to maintain Texas as a Top 10 national program her first three seasons at Texas; so, didn't lose ground on what her predecessor, Kim Brackin, had established. But, she is not the elite recruiter Brackin was. Unless she can start signing those "elite" swimmers who become NCAA champions, we won't be a Top 5 national program competing for NCAA team championships. She retained diving coach, Matt Scoggin. If our diving program wasn't so good, I'm not convinced we'd be finishing in the Top 10 nationally.
Golf: Hired an assistant coach from the men's golf program. Completed first season; just missed out on advancing to final weekend of NCAA tourney play.
Rowing: Hired the very successful head coach from Cal-Berkeley. I applaud this hire.
Softball: Connie Clark is the only coach we've had; hired by Conradt, I believe.
The last 3 seasons she's gone from a Top 4 finish, to Top 32, to Top 48. Is that the right direction? And, prior to the 2013 season, her team flopped at home in super regionals and regionals. So, basically, she's had one great season in the last 5-6 years.
Without an elite pitcher like Osterman or Luna, she's just not gonna get it done consistently. She's basically Rick Barnes (who hit a similar jackpot with TJ Ford and then Kevin Durant); look how that turned out. She's headed in the same direction as the program is stagnant, and regressing.
Just look at what Auburn did in their second season under Clint Myers; granted, his level of coaching success doesn't grow on trees, but a quick turnaround is definitely possible if you hire the right head coach. Perhaps the head coaches at 'Bama or Mizzou would be interested in being able to have the state of Texas as their recruiting back yard.
Sadly, the best high school players in Texas are leaving the state to play college softball. They aren't even going to A&M or Baylor. No team from the state of Texas hosting a regional this month is pretty telling.
Connie Clark isn't going to overtake OU's Patty Gasso as the best coach in the Big 12; so, the best we'll be shooting for with her at the helm is second-best in the conference. I sure hope those aren't our standards.
majorwhiteapples
5,000+ Posts
Serious issues with the woman programs.
Plonsky reports to Patterson or to the President?
Plonsky reports to Patterson or to the President?
majorwhiteapples
5,000+ Posts
Who hired Elliot?
I'm not positive. I think it was during the time when Conradt was transitioning the job to Plonsky.
Of course Plonsky is committed to winning. If you say all she cares about is revenue and the LHN, then she is committed to winning. It all goes hand and hand, if you don't win, you don't make any money, if you win, you make more money. Also look at the recruiting class that Capitani has brought in this year, it's a top five class. And our diving on the women's side hasn't been great over the last couple of years when they've finished in the top ten.
When it comes to coach Clark, what program is successful with out great pitching. Florida just won another national title with great pitching. As for coach Elliott, there has always been a debate over who hired him, some say Plonsky and some say coach Conradt. I don't think it really matters because those who don't like Plonsky,(and i'm not saying you're one of them) will always say that coach Conradt hired him. Also Plonsky doesn't answer to Patterson, she answers to the president, they're separate departments.
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Plonsky helped negotiate the LHN deal and revenue windfall. Regardless, of her program's successes, she won't be fired for lack of championships. Women's sports are non-revenue, so the revenue she helped bring in from the LHN is more than any women's athletic department would ever generate no matter how many championships they win.
Connie Cllark has been at Texas for 19 seasons; zero championship appearances; reached the Final Four twice. Tim Walton has been at Florida for 10 seasons; he has 3 championship appearances, and 2 national championships in 2014 & 2015. When is it time to realize Clark has already peaked, and is never going to surpass OU as the best program in the Big 12 on a consistent basis? If you aren't winning your conference, you most likely won't be winning the national championship.
Capitani is new to the head coaching game; but, if she can recruit a few more Top 5 classes, then she has a chance to make Texas a Top 5 program again.
Connie Cllark has been at Texas for 19 seasons; zero championship appearances; reached the Final Four twice. Tim Walton has been at Florida for 10 seasons; he has 3 championship appearances, and 2 national championships in 2014 & 2015. When is it time to realize Clark has already peaked, and is never going to surpass OU as the best program in the Big 12 on a consistent basis? If you aren't winning your conference, you most likely won't be winning the national championship.
Capitani is new to the head coaching game; but, if she can recruit a few more Top 5 classes, then she has a chance to make Texas a Top 5 program again.
This was posted a few days ago..
PATTERSON EXPOSED ON FUNDING OF UT TENNIS FACILITY?
When new Texas president Gregory Fenves on Wednesday said UT's tennis facility to be built east of I-35 has already been funded, Steve Patterson had some explaining to do.
Patterson has sent out members of the Longhorn Foundation all over the state to meet with prospective donors and give them expensively produced packages detailing what contributions could mean in terms of naming rights for different parts of the tennis facility.
The message for months from Patterson's office to everyone inside and outside the athletic department has been that the money for a new $17 million tennis facility - all of it - would have to be raised. Every penny. And that if only $6 million was raised, then UT would build a $6 million facility.
One problem: Former Texas president Bill Powers had made it clear from the moment UT's former tennis facility - Penick-Allison - was targeted for demolition in 2012 to make room for a new medical school that the university, not athletics, would pay for a new facility.
Multiple sources told HornsDigest.com 10 months ago Powers made it clear to Patterson that $15 million for a new tennis facility was being deducted from a total of $30 million that athletics was set to share with the central university.
Sources said it was important to Powers that the university - not athletics - pay for a new facility because athletics had no say in the demolition of Penick-Allison, which was razed last June.
But for months Patterson would never acknowledge the $15 million when asked by HornsDigest.com about the funding for the facility. And, internally, Patterson kept telling everyone in the department every penny had to be raised to pay for it.
Some of the frustration of that utterly confusing dynamic played out Wednesday when women's tennis coach Danielle Lund McNamara resigned her position effective immediately after one season on the job.
That follows Patty Fendick-McCain turning down a contract extension as women's tennis coach at UT and resigning last year. And it follows Texas being turned down four times in trying to hire McCain's successor. UT was turned down by Alabama's Jenny Mainz, North Carolina's Brian Kalbas and was turned down twice by Rice women's tennis coach Elizabeth Schmidt, an Austin Westlake product, before hiring McNamara, who was the women's tennis coach at Yale.
But sources said UT not having a tennis facility this season or next - combined with Patterson pinching pennies by cutting the number of times a UT coach can go into the athletic dining hall from unlimited to 30 times per school year (or they have to pay their own way), helped gut an already unstable women's tennis program.
"There was no place for Coach McNamara to meet with her team," one source close to the situation said Wednesday. "Was she going to use her own money each time she wanted to go into the athletic dining hall just to meet with her players? She'd be taking a pay cut. Come on. It's ridiculous."
The silence was deafening out of Patterson's office on Wednesday. A message left with athletics spokesman Nick Voinis went unreturned.
But an email from women's AD Chris Plonsky was sent out to UT faithful that blamed "a personal situation" for McNamara's resignation. Plonsky also added "we are feverishly fund raising to ensure that our men's and women's teams benefit from this new facility within the time frame of construction plans (which are in the early stages)."
Plonsky's email went out less than two hours before Fenves confirmed during his introductory news conference that the tennis facility had already been funded.
Austin's Carol Welder, a board member of the Capital Area Tennis Association and former vice president of the United States Tennis Association, has been following the fate of UT's new tennis facility very closely.
"Texas made the decision to tear down Penick-Allison and made a commitment to replace it, and that needs to be honored," Welder said. "If they are saying now the $15 million has to be raised for a new tennis facility - after the school vowed to spend the money to replace it Steve Patterson should know his men's and women's tennis programs premier programs - could be in jeopardy.
"If ground is not broken for the new tennis facility by the end of 2015, the completion date could push into 2017, meaning UT's men's and women's tennis programs would have been practicing and playing on public courts with no place to meet for three years. How would recruiting survive that?"
Here's another problem: Patterson himself has ruined the relationships with at least two donors who came forward with plans to give at least $1 million toward the tennis facility.
Those donors asked not to be identified. But both told HornsDigest.com that they wanted to meet with Patterson about potential naming rights. Both said they had numerous forms of correspondence initially ignored by Patterson's office before working with members of the Longhorn Foundation to set up a meeting with Patterson.
Both donors said they had more than one meeting canceled by Patterson initially. And then when they finally did meet with Patterson, the Texas athletic director let them know he was very short on time.
"The athletic director - supposedly desperate to raise money for a new tennis facility - tells me he only has 15 minutes when we sit down for lunch?" one of the donors said. "I said, 'I'm sorry. I thought you all were asking me for help.'"
The meetings went so badly, according to the donors, they both have vowed never to give any money to Texas while Patterson is the athletic director.
When I asked Fenves Wednesday if $15 million had been earmarked by the central university for a new tennis facility, per a longstanding agreement between Powers and former athletic director DeLoss Dodds, Fenves said:
"That's been funded, and we will proceed."
He then described how some existing facilities - the UT Press building - will need to be relocated before construction can begin just north of Disch-Falk Field and across Comal from the Longhorns' softball stadium.
Fenves said the new estimate for the tennis facility is $17 million.
Sources said Powers was committed to $15 million for a new tennis facility and that if athletics wanted to go above and beyond that, they could raise any additional money.
But Patterson may be his own worst enemy when it comes to raising money - one of the most important jobs of an athletic director.
Ask any athletic director in a Power 5 conference and they'll tell you they are personally responsible for looking after the top 40 or 50 donors to athletics. Multiple sources said Patterson is incapable of that because his people skills are so bad. So more and more people have been hired at Texas to do the fund-raising for him. Multiple sources said Patterson's wife, Yasmine Michael, is now taking a lead role in donor relations.
And Patterson has turned to his coaches to raise money - something former AD DeLoss Dodds always discouraged because it often put coaches in difficult positions.
Patterson has told all of his non-revenue coaches they have to "come up with ways to make your programs profitable." That has included Patterson telling coaches to cultivate/develop donors connected to their sports to help cover costs.
That was another reason women's tennis coach Danielle Lund McNamara resigned on Wednesday, sources said. She was having a hard enough time coaching and meeting with her players without a facility to start worrying about having to be the program's fund-raiser, too.
PATTERSON EXPOSED ON FUNDING OF UT TENNIS FACILITY?
When new Texas president Gregory Fenves on Wednesday said UT's tennis facility to be built east of I-35 has already been funded, Steve Patterson had some explaining to do.
Patterson has sent out members of the Longhorn Foundation all over the state to meet with prospective donors and give them expensively produced packages detailing what contributions could mean in terms of naming rights for different parts of the tennis facility.
The message for months from Patterson's office to everyone inside and outside the athletic department has been that the money for a new $17 million tennis facility - all of it - would have to be raised. Every penny. And that if only $6 million was raised, then UT would build a $6 million facility.
One problem: Former Texas president Bill Powers had made it clear from the moment UT's former tennis facility - Penick-Allison - was targeted for demolition in 2012 to make room for a new medical school that the university, not athletics, would pay for a new facility.
Multiple sources told HornsDigest.com 10 months ago Powers made it clear to Patterson that $15 million for a new tennis facility was being deducted from a total of $30 million that athletics was set to share with the central university.
Sources said it was important to Powers that the university - not athletics - pay for a new facility because athletics had no say in the demolition of Penick-Allison, which was razed last June.
But for months Patterson would never acknowledge the $15 million when asked by HornsDigest.com about the funding for the facility. And, internally, Patterson kept telling everyone in the department every penny had to be raised to pay for it.
Some of the frustration of that utterly confusing dynamic played out Wednesday when women's tennis coach Danielle Lund McNamara resigned her position effective immediately after one season on the job.
That follows Patty Fendick-McCain turning down a contract extension as women's tennis coach at UT and resigning last year. And it follows Texas being turned down four times in trying to hire McCain's successor. UT was turned down by Alabama's Jenny Mainz, North Carolina's Brian Kalbas and was turned down twice by Rice women's tennis coach Elizabeth Schmidt, an Austin Westlake product, before hiring McNamara, who was the women's tennis coach at Yale.
But sources said UT not having a tennis facility this season or next - combined with Patterson pinching pennies by cutting the number of times a UT coach can go into the athletic dining hall from unlimited to 30 times per school year (or they have to pay their own way), helped gut an already unstable women's tennis program.
"There was no place for Coach McNamara to meet with her team," one source close to the situation said Wednesday. "Was she going to use her own money each time she wanted to go into the athletic dining hall just to meet with her players? She'd be taking a pay cut. Come on. It's ridiculous."
The silence was deafening out of Patterson's office on Wednesday. A message left with athletics spokesman Nick Voinis went unreturned.
But an email from women's AD Chris Plonsky was sent out to UT faithful that blamed "a personal situation" for McNamara's resignation. Plonsky also added "we are feverishly fund raising to ensure that our men's and women's teams benefit from this new facility within the time frame of construction plans (which are in the early stages)."
Plonsky's email went out less than two hours before Fenves confirmed during his introductory news conference that the tennis facility had already been funded.
Austin's Carol Welder, a board member of the Capital Area Tennis Association and former vice president of the United States Tennis Association, has been following the fate of UT's new tennis facility very closely.
"Texas made the decision to tear down Penick-Allison and made a commitment to replace it, and that needs to be honored," Welder said. "If they are saying now the $15 million has to be raised for a new tennis facility - after the school vowed to spend the money to replace it Steve Patterson should know his men's and women's tennis programs premier programs - could be in jeopardy.
"If ground is not broken for the new tennis facility by the end of 2015, the completion date could push into 2017, meaning UT's men's and women's tennis programs would have been practicing and playing on public courts with no place to meet for three years. How would recruiting survive that?"
Here's another problem: Patterson himself has ruined the relationships with at least two donors who came forward with plans to give at least $1 million toward the tennis facility.
Those donors asked not to be identified. But both told HornsDigest.com that they wanted to meet with Patterson about potential naming rights. Both said they had numerous forms of correspondence initially ignored by Patterson's office before working with members of the Longhorn Foundation to set up a meeting with Patterson.
Both donors said they had more than one meeting canceled by Patterson initially. And then when they finally did meet with Patterson, the Texas athletic director let them know he was very short on time.
"The athletic director - supposedly desperate to raise money for a new tennis facility - tells me he only has 15 minutes when we sit down for lunch?" one of the donors said. "I said, 'I'm sorry. I thought you all were asking me for help.'"
The meetings went so badly, according to the donors, they both have vowed never to give any money to Texas while Patterson is the athletic director.
When I asked Fenves Wednesday if $15 million had been earmarked by the central university for a new tennis facility, per a longstanding agreement between Powers and former athletic director DeLoss Dodds, Fenves said:
"That's been funded, and we will proceed."
He then described how some existing facilities - the UT Press building - will need to be relocated before construction can begin just north of Disch-Falk Field and across Comal from the Longhorns' softball stadium.
Fenves said the new estimate for the tennis facility is $17 million.
Sources said Powers was committed to $15 million for a new tennis facility and that if athletics wanted to go above and beyond that, they could raise any additional money.
But Patterson may be his own worst enemy when it comes to raising money - one of the most important jobs of an athletic director.
Ask any athletic director in a Power 5 conference and they'll tell you they are personally responsible for looking after the top 40 or 50 donors to athletics. Multiple sources said Patterson is incapable of that because his people skills are so bad. So more and more people have been hired at Texas to do the fund-raising for him. Multiple sources said Patterson's wife, Yasmine Michael, is now taking a lead role in donor relations.
And Patterson has turned to his coaches to raise money - something former AD DeLoss Dodds always discouraged because it often put coaches in difficult positions.
Patterson has told all of his non-revenue coaches they have to "come up with ways to make your programs profitable." That has included Patterson telling coaches to cultivate/develop donors connected to their sports to help cover costs.
That was another reason women's tennis coach Danielle Lund McNamara resigned on Wednesday, sources said. She was having a hard enough time coaching and meeting with her players without a facility to start worrying about having to be the program's fund-raiser, too.
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It was posted on HornsDigest.com, as well as few other forums. I, as well as several other Tennis Alumni Lettermen, were made aware of it today.
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Gotcha, was just curious. Looking forward to the new facility, broke my heart when I heard PATC was being torn down.
Likewise. I have a lot of memories there and it was home for me for 3 years back in college.
That's awesome, watching Roger Gubser take down A&M was definitely one of my favorite matches.
No clue. Hopefully his previous time 100 miles away will transfer over to Texas and he'll get this program back on the right track.
UTexRulz23
500+ Posts
They are having to have open tryouts for the fall. This is going to be a rough season.
So they brought in a walk-on named Chelsea Crovetti who played juniors but now it appears Pippa Horn is not listed on the roster so they are back down to 5 players again.
EDIT: Turns out Horn was kicked off the team according to someone on Shaggy Bevo. I'd actually forgotten about Ratnika Batra, no mention of anything regarding her absence from the program.
EDIT: Turns out Horn was kicked off the team according to someone on Shaggy Bevo. I'd actually forgotten about Ratnika Batra, no mention of anything regarding her absence from the program.
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UTexRulz23
500+ Posts
Yeah that's pretty embarrassing.
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