By Craig Healy
Head Coach Rex Ecarma knows a lot when it comes to recruiting, and the 2007 men’s tennis class is proof.
Freshmen Simon Childs, Austen Childs, Alejandro Calligari and Viktor Maksimcuk have already been compared to U of L men’s basketball recruiting class of Edgar Sosa, Jerry Smith, Derrick Caracter and Earl Clark.
If Rick Pitino did a good job recruiting, consider the fact that he didn’t have to go half way around the world to find quality players like Ecarma did. With the U.S. only having two players currently ranked in the top 40 in the latest ATP poll, it is safe to say men’s tennis is an internationally dominated sport. So if the top players are over seas, why not bring them to U of L?
With only three current players on the rosters residing from the U.S., recruiting goes to a new level for Ecarma and his staff.
“Recruiting is a 52-week out of the year process,” Ecarma said. “I have been recruiting Simon Childs for the past year. I’ve known about Austen Childs for a long time. I have a lot of contacts with the Nick Bolletierri Academy and through them I went and saw Alejandro play. With Viktor, we have had some extremely good Eastern Europeans and we got to know each other over long distance and I knew he would be a good addition to U of L. So I went after all of them and got all four.”
“Rex contacted me in September, and he knew I wanted to go to college,” Austen Childs said. “He followed me all the way through and showed me a lot of loyalty. I liked what he said and I had a good feel for the university.”
When recruiting international players, finding them is only half the battle. There is a lot of hard work involved in bringing the players to the States.
“I had a good relationship with all of my recruits,” Ecarma said. “I sold myself as being knowledgeable in bringing in world class internationals because there is triple the work you’ve got to do. They have immigration, student visas, you have to prove finical credibility. I’m very experienced with that and I have history of bringing players from different parts of the world and they have been very happy with their experiences at U of L.”
“I’ve always wanted to go to a university in the states,” Simon Childs said. “You play a lot of matches. Rex knew what he was talking about and sounded like the right fit for me.”
The men’s tennis team is loaded with talent this year, but the one thing they do lack is experience. After the graduation of Slavko Radman and Damar Johnson among others, there are no seniors on the roster this season. Junior Robert Rotaru may help fill that void, but Ecarma said it is up to the freshmen to live up to their potential.
“I can’t afford to wait for them to be a seasoned junior,” Ecarma said. “I’m going to throw them in the fire. I’m going to do everything in their fall semester to make them miserable, so either they are going to melt down or be great for the spring season. They got misery to look forward to, but that’s when you can really grow.”
