University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldogs Reunite, Capture Alumni Title
June 30, 2015 | Men's Tennis
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
ATHENS, Ga. — In the least significant development at the end of a weekend full of action at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, the Georgia Bulldogs were the ones holding the trophy and posing for pictures Sunday after winning the National Alumni Championships.
Of course, the odds were in favor of a Bulldog win given that three of the six teams in the event — also competing were alumni squads from Georgia Tech, LSU and Kansas — had "Georgia Tennis" on their shirts. Still, a win's a win and captain Jay Laschinger's big smile was well earned.
But the big winners were all of the players, from the victorious Bulldogs (more than a dozen in all) that showed up, to the Yellow Jackets, Tigers and Jayhawks. The event allows the guys to stoke their competitive fires and represent their schools and programs again.
"I always loved watching the guys that were on the team before and after me, so to be able to play with them now, it's great," said former Georgia All-American Wade McGuire (1991-93), now the director of tennis at The Atlantic Club in Manasquan, N.J. "I've always felt like we have such a great tradition, with guys coming back and always wanting to be a part of the program; I think that's what makes it so special to be back again."
The National Alumni Championships was created by former LSU player Tom Hand and was launched last November, with a six-team event at TCU (which Georgia also won). The assistant men's tennis coach at UNC-Asheville, Hand said the idea came about from wondering what the Tigers' record against Georgia was during his playing days (1997-2000).
As it turned out, in matches in which Hand played, the Dogs and Tigers were 4-4, and naturally, despite gray hairs and expanding bellies and families, the matter had to be settled once and for all on the court.
"And I thought to myself, if we're going to have two teams out there, we might as well have a few more," Hand said. "It's part tennis competition and part reunion and part sit around and tell old war stories about how great we used to be."
Hand said he's very excited about the start of the event and he believes it can get bigger and better. The elite programs from the West Coast (Stanford, UCLA and USC) haven't gotten involved yet, so getting them to participate is high on his list of priorities.
"I've got all kinds of ideas about what we can do with it and where it could go," Hand said.
For Georgia coach Manuel Diaz, it was a prideful weekend. He not only got to see so many of the players that have helped make UGA the elite program that it is, players that can still play and still love the game, but he also got to see the men they've become.
"It's great seeing them and spending time with them, and it's great seeing them become so successful in so many varied fields," said Diaz, who in May completed his 27th season as Georgia's head coach. "They're all successful parents or role models, and they're all tremendous people of very high character. That's the that's most rewarding to see."
For Georgia, the players in action ranged from the nearly 52-year-old Allen Miller, an ITA Hall of Fame member that won an NCAA doubles title in 1983 (with Ola Malmqvist) and was a crucial member of the Dogs' first national championship team in 1985, to Drake Bernstein, now Jeff Wallace's associate head coach for the Georgia women's team, who was born four years after that 1985 championship season.
Miller may have been the oldest player in action, but the director of tennis at the Athens Country Club is still a doubles wizard ("I doubt that, but I am the oldest," he said), and he's as competitive as ever. Especially when facing off against Georgia Tech, as he and partner Kevin Sessions did Friday, when they defeated Chris Maier and Mark Avedikian.
Miller and Avedikian first began going head to head in the juniors, as was evident by their regular back and forth during Friday's match.
"I never lost, but I probably won 15 three-set matches against him," Miller said. "He was always hard to play. We love playing each other and I was giving him a lot of grief, which he of course shot right back."
By the end of play Sunday, many of the players weren't quite as spry as they'd been Friday and more ice bags were wrapped around shoulders and knees. But the smiles and laughs, there was no age to them.
John Frierson is a staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Hall of Fame at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. You can follow him on Twitter: @TheFrierson and @ITAHallofFame.