Spring Break
Wallace recalls tennis history
MANIK K. GUPTA
Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: Sports
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Since Wallace's hire, the Georgia women have not looked back. Over the 24 years, Wallace, a former tennis player at Georgia, has led his teams to seven SEC regular-season titles and six SEC Tournament championships, with the most recent coming this past Sunday.
He's also won two NCAA national championships (1994, 2000).
The Red & Black sat down with the Georgia women's tennis coach to discuss the program's illustrious history, among other things.
The Red & Black: Could you give us a historical background? When you came here, what was the state of the program?
Jeff Wallace: Well, I finished my degree in '84 and my eligibility in '85. The fall of '85 and the spring of '86 was my first year coaching the team ... The team was coming off a losing season, and they had never had a national team ranking. Back then, they only ranked 25 teams, so it was a pretty elite group of teams. So, our first goal was to get the team ranked in the top 25 ... We ended up being ranked No. 23 that year. We ended up being the last team selected for the NCAA Tournament. We went out to UCLA to play in the tournament, our first time in the tournament. We ended up beating Miami who was the No. 2 seed at the time.
In the quarterfinals, we beat Trinity University - they were a big tennis powerhouse back then. We went to the finals where we lost to Stanford. I've been told that we were the first team to ever go all the way to the finals in their first time in the tournament.
It never happened before that time and it is hasn't happened since.
R&B: After you finished up your eligibility, did you know that coaching tennis was something you wanted to get into?
JW: I really wanted to stay in tennis some way, shape, or form. I really had a great college playing experience here. ... I was just very fortunate to land the job. And, now I blink and it's 24 years later.
R&B: Would you call your two national titles your greatest experiences here?
JW: 1994 was really special - the fact that it was the first time we had the women's tournament here at the University of Georgia. Then, going on to win that tournament was really special. Winning our first national team title was just an incredible, incredible thing for all us that were involved. In 2000, we were all the way out on the west coast at Pepperdine. That was just another great team that knocked off maybe one of the best teams in the history of college tennis, Stanford, who at the time was just loaded and was defending national champions, and undefeated the whole year before.
R&B: So, were you and [men's tennis head coach Manuel] Diaz classmates here?
JW: No, I'm a young guy - he's really old (laughs).
R&B: I'm probably going to tell him you said that.
JW: (Laughs) He played here during the late '70s, and I was here during the mid '80s, and he's only a little bit older than me.
R&B: So if you guys played, who would come out on top?
JW: I'm probably in better shape. A little bit. Maybe. But, back in the day, he was a lot better - let's get the record straight, I'm not hiding anything - a lot better than I was. He'd probably still beat me today. Let's be clear about that. He was actually an incredible, incredible player. I was just on the No. 6 court trying to scrap and win any match I could. His first year as an assistant was actually my last year playing here.
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