University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Manny Diaz
May 04, 2020 | Men's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Manuel Diaz isn't thinking about retirement. Georgia's longtime and legendary men's tennis coach has gotten a taste of it, however, since the coronavirus pandemic shut down spring sports back in March. Diaz has enjoyed keeping busy during the unexpected break, but after 32 seasons leading the Bulldogs, he is as eager as he's ever been to return to the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and get back to work.
During this spring's shortened season, Diaz became the winningest coach in Georgia and SEC history, passing Coach Magill's mark 706 career wins. Diaz, a former All-American player at Georgia, from San Juan, P.R., sits at 709 right now, at a time when the NCAA Championships would be taking place.
Taking a break from doing some gardening to do a Quick Chat over the phone, Diaz talked about keeping a good attitude, playing the ukulele and congas, becoming Coach Magill's assistant in 1982 and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: How are you handling your first spring away from the tennis courts in a very, very long time?
Diaz: I'm doing good. My attitude is good and I'm just trying to be positive. Much of it is because it's a big responsibility to try to keep a good sense of perspective and a good attitude in all of our student-athletes. A good attitude is necessary to really be able to make it through difficult times, through a tough moment in competition, and it's the same thing here.
Like everyone else, I was very disappointed in the heartbreak that our student-athletes experienced. For me, it was a little bit more disbelief because I can put it in a little more perspective, but for them, they have a much more limited past, I guess, and to them, I think it was a very hard moment. While we all are experiencing unknowns, and this is a first, I still find myself trying to be that source of support and perspective for them.
At the same time, I wake up in the mornings and look out the window and there's this confusing sense of, is it early March or is it June? I don't have competition — my clock was completely off and every morning I had to make sense of it all.
Frierson: How are you filling all of those hours that in normal times would be spent at the courts?
Diaz: A lot of this time has been spent recruiting. The number of emails and texts and messages that are coming in, it's incredible. I spend a lot of time answering emails and looking at stats and results of kids from all over the world and getting back to them. There's a lot of recruiting going on right now.
I also do a lot of walking with the dogs and I'm taking on gardening projects and working in the yard — physical stuff like shoveling and hammering — which keeps me busy.
Frierson: It's a weird feeling because I'm not sure Athens has ever had a prettier spring, yet we've all been so limited in what we can do.
Diaz: I choose to believe that there are a lot of good things that are going to come out of this pretty ugly time. Living in Five Points, Milledge Circle is just filled with families and dogs just walking down the sidewalk, jogging down the road. There seems to be a lot more socializing among families, a lot more families playing games and spending time just being creative at home. You can see some of these things happening and I choose to believe there's a lot of good that we'll make out of this very sad time.
Frierson: Are you picking up any new hobbies or reacquainting yourself with any old ones?
Diaz: I had faded away from playing my ukulele, something I'd started two or three years ago, and I had gotten away from it. Now I'm back to playing my ukulele and I actually starting playing some congas. I have a good friend that's a percussionist and he loaned me one of his congas. I'm beating it around and watching some YouTube videos trying to learn some techniques. I never knew something like a conga, something so simple, could be so complicated [laughs].
Those are two of the things I've taken up besides gardening. I'm also painting, but I'm not talking about artistic painting like my wife does, I'm talking about painting the side of the house [laughs], painting the shed, painting the stairs at our lake house, things like that.
Frierson: As I wrote about a few months ago when you passed Coach Magill's record for career wins, baseball was your favorite sport when you were young. Who was your favorite baseball player?
Diaz: Roberto Clemente was, but even before Clemente, another Hall of Famer, Orlando Cepeda, was the player that I looked up to the most because he played for my Santurce Crabbers team (in San Juan). Clemente played for our arch-rivals, the San Juan Senators.
I grew up a fan of Orlando Cepeda, but Clemente had such a legacy and that World Series, in 1971, when he was the MVP — nobody excelled at all aspects of the game like he could. He could run, he could throw, he could catch, he could hit and even hit for power like he did in that World Series. He became the standard for me.
Frierson: When you came back to Athens in the early '80s to be Coach Magill's assistant coach, did you have a sense that you were here to stay?
Diaz: I did [laughs]. I had basically turned down the position six times and Coach kept telling me, I only have a few more years and I'd love to teach you everything and I'd love for you to eventually take on the program. I was living for the time, for only about six months, in Puerto Rico, after about 10 years in Athens and Atlanta.
I was doing very well financially (working at the Dorado Beach hotel and resort) and back then it was an era of restricted earnings coaches, so I moved back to Athens for $14,000 a year. I did it because I saw down the road that I would be happy coaching at the University of Georgia. I knew I would be happy developing players at this level, players with ambitions of becoming either very good tennis players or men with professional aspirations, whether it's medicine or business or whatever.
I wanted to be part of that, developing men of character — that was always something that was my passion and there was no better place to do that than at my alma mater.
Frierson: As someone that's been coaching for a really long time, has this shutdown kind of given you a sense of what retirement will be like?
Diaz: I guess so, yeah, not that I'm thinking about it. It goes to show you that you can find creative things that keep you active when you don't have tennis. Having said that, I cannot wait to get back to our team and to beginning a new journey like we do every year — setting out a vision, mapping out a game plan, motivating and keeping the guys focused and striving to get each guy to embrace excellence. All of the things that make my motor go, it just keeps me excited.
I'm enjoying some of the things I'm doing right now, but I think it's going to be an incredible year next year because I feel like I've charged my batteries and I'll come back ready to go, like gangbusters. I spend a lot of time planning and invigorating myself and attack the beginning of the year, and I think that this is going to do the same thing for everyone. There's going to be a lot of motivation throughout the country, in every single sport and every single program, to make up and finish the job we started last year.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
Manuel Diaz isn't thinking about retirement. Georgia's longtime and legendary men's tennis coach has gotten a taste of it, however, since the coronavirus pandemic shut down spring sports back in March. Diaz has enjoyed keeping busy during the unexpected break, but after 32 seasons leading the Bulldogs, he is as eager as he's ever been to return to the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and get back to work.
During this spring's shortened season, Diaz became the winningest coach in Georgia and SEC history, passing Coach Magill's mark 706 career wins. Diaz, a former All-American player at Georgia, from San Juan, P.R., sits at 709 right now, at a time when the NCAA Championships would be taking place.
Taking a break from doing some gardening to do a Quick Chat over the phone, Diaz talked about keeping a good attitude, playing the ukulele and congas, becoming Coach Magill's assistant in 1982 and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: How are you handling your first spring away from the tennis courts in a very, very long time?
Diaz: I'm doing good. My attitude is good and I'm just trying to be positive. Much of it is because it's a big responsibility to try to keep a good sense of perspective and a good attitude in all of our student-athletes. A good attitude is necessary to really be able to make it through difficult times, through a tough moment in competition, and it's the same thing here.
Like everyone else, I was very disappointed in the heartbreak that our student-athletes experienced. For me, it was a little bit more disbelief because I can put it in a little more perspective, but for them, they have a much more limited past, I guess, and to them, I think it was a very hard moment. While we all are experiencing unknowns, and this is a first, I still find myself trying to be that source of support and perspective for them.
At the same time, I wake up in the mornings and look out the window and there's this confusing sense of, is it early March or is it June? I don't have competition — my clock was completely off and every morning I had to make sense of it all.
Frierson: How are you filling all of those hours that in normal times would be spent at the courts?
Diaz: A lot of this time has been spent recruiting. The number of emails and texts and messages that are coming in, it's incredible. I spend a lot of time answering emails and looking at stats and results of kids from all over the world and getting back to them. There's a lot of recruiting going on right now.
I also do a lot of walking with the dogs and I'm taking on gardening projects and working in the yard — physical stuff like shoveling and hammering — which keeps me busy.
Frierson: It's a weird feeling because I'm not sure Athens has ever had a prettier spring, yet we've all been so limited in what we can do.
Diaz: I choose to believe that there are a lot of good things that are going to come out of this pretty ugly time. Living in Five Points, Milledge Circle is just filled with families and dogs just walking down the sidewalk, jogging down the road. There seems to be a lot more socializing among families, a lot more families playing games and spending time just being creative at home. You can see some of these things happening and I choose to believe there's a lot of good that we'll make out of this very sad time.
Frierson: Are you picking up any new hobbies or reacquainting yourself with any old ones?
Diaz: I had faded away from playing my ukulele, something I'd started two or three years ago, and I had gotten away from it. Now I'm back to playing my ukulele and I actually starting playing some congas. I have a good friend that's a percussionist and he loaned me one of his congas. I'm beating it around and watching some YouTube videos trying to learn some techniques. I never knew something like a conga, something so simple, could be so complicated [laughs].
Those are two of the things I've taken up besides gardening. I'm also painting, but I'm not talking about artistic painting like my wife does, I'm talking about painting the side of the house [laughs], painting the shed, painting the stairs at our lake house, things like that.
Frierson: As I wrote about a few months ago when you passed Coach Magill's record for career wins, baseball was your favorite sport when you were young. Who was your favorite baseball player?
Diaz: Roberto Clemente was, but even before Clemente, another Hall of Famer, Orlando Cepeda, was the player that I looked up to the most because he played for my Santurce Crabbers team (in San Juan). Clemente played for our arch-rivals, the San Juan Senators.
I grew up a fan of Orlando Cepeda, but Clemente had such a legacy and that World Series, in 1971, when he was the MVP — nobody excelled at all aspects of the game like he could. He could run, he could throw, he could catch, he could hit and even hit for power like he did in that World Series. He became the standard for me.
Frierson: When you came back to Athens in the early '80s to be Coach Magill's assistant coach, did you have a sense that you were here to stay?
Diaz: I did [laughs]. I had basically turned down the position six times and Coach kept telling me, I only have a few more years and I'd love to teach you everything and I'd love for you to eventually take on the program. I was living for the time, for only about six months, in Puerto Rico, after about 10 years in Athens and Atlanta.
I was doing very well financially (working at the Dorado Beach hotel and resort) and back then it was an era of restricted earnings coaches, so I moved back to Athens for $14,000 a year. I did it because I saw down the road that I would be happy coaching at the University of Georgia. I knew I would be happy developing players at this level, players with ambitions of becoming either very good tennis players or men with professional aspirations, whether it's medicine or business or whatever.
I wanted to be part of that, developing men of character — that was always something that was my passion and there was no better place to do that than at my alma mater.
Frierson: As someone that's been coaching for a really long time, has this shutdown kind of given you a sense of what retirement will be like?
Diaz: I guess so, yeah, not that I'm thinking about it. It goes to show you that you can find creative things that keep you active when you don't have tennis. Having said that, I cannot wait to get back to our team and to beginning a new journey like we do every year — setting out a vision, mapping out a game plan, motivating and keeping the guys focused and striving to get each guy to embrace excellence. All of the things that make my motor go, it just keeps me excited.
I'm enjoying some of the things I'm doing right now, but I think it's going to be an incredible year next year because I feel like I've charged my batteries and I'll come back ready to go, like gangbusters. I spend a lot of time planning and invigorating myself and attack the beginning of the year, and I think that this is going to do the same thing for everyone. There's going to be a lot of motivation throughout the country, in every single sport and every single program, to make up and finish the job we started last year.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the assistant sports communications director for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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