VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia - Virginia Wesleyan Athletics wants our fans to get to know the coaching staff of each sport offered here at VWU. This week's edition of the Inside Splash segment is with the head coach of the men's and women's tennis teams Marty Perry, interviewed by VWU Sports Information intern Taylor Major.  

The Inside Splash - Coach Perry

• What does being a Marlin mean to you? 
  1. Well I'm from the area so I went to Hampton High School, grew up here, born here, so you know the opportunity to come back to my hometown five years ago and become a Marlin was really important to me, it brought me back home. I love the vibe of the school. I love that we're going places, you know a lot of schools have kind of plateaued and I feel like since I've been here we've really grown a lot. There's a lot to be proud of, the tennis program has come a long way and I feel like being a coach of the Marlins is probably the most important job I've had. I feel like the kids that we get really come here to get a great college tennis experience. They really want to put a lot into it. I have been to a lot of schools, but I feel like here more than anywhere, kids here that we get have more commitment to the program so that puts pressure on me and the assistant coach to make sure that we give them a great experience. We schedule hard, we train hard, we train frequently and to me it's a lot of responsibility to make sure that they get what they signed up for. 

 

• When you're not coaching, what do you enjoy? 
  1. I like projects, improving the house, my kids and I. I have a son that plays on the team and another son that's going to be a high school senior this year coming up. We like to fish, we like to be on the bay, we have a boat and we invest in that. We've been doing that for 7 or 8 years, trying to be out on the water as much as we can. Spending time with family, I'm from here, my family is from here. My grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins and such here, so it's nice to be here and help them out when I can. 

 

• Who are some coaches you look up to? 
  1. Well,I'm in my 22nd year of coaching, so I know a lot of coaches. Some of the ones that I look up to the most are ones that I have relationships with and I know. I think Brian Kelvis used to be at William & Mary, he was the women's head coach while I was the men's assistant coach. Then I actually was his assistant for a little before I went to Colgate. He's someone that I've always looked up to and tried to emulate a little bit. He's the women's coach at North Carolina's right now, he's had national championship double's teams, he's been national coach of the year, just a great personality. I run our practice schedule similar to how he ran practices when he was at William & Mary, a lot of small group work, a lot of individuals, made team practice fun, competed a lot in practice; really got to know the players. They called him Brian, that's why I have my players call me Marty if they want. I know a lot of coaches don't like that but he did it and he's the best coach in the country, in my opinion, so I do that. I've taken a lot from him. Paul Gastengay, Bates Division III coach. I think he's the best coach in Division III, again, his players call him Paul, another down to earth guy. I spent a lot of time with him at camps, we usually do a camp every summer, obviously not this summer, but for the past 20 years at camps. I got to know him real well. Chuck Williambourgh at Hopkins, really good friend of mine. Roger Fullmer in Wash U, Washington University, these are DIII coaches. I used to be in Chicago, we were really good friends, in the same conference. Stayed in touch with him, traveled together, recruited together. Again, all guys that dig into their programs, commit to them and they get to know their players to try to get the most out of them. 

 

• Most memorable college moment? 
  1. As a player? Wow, that's a long time ago. Well I played Junior College in Hilton Head, South Carolina. We got to go to nationals twice in Corpus Christi, Texas, at Corpus Christi, Texas. I remember the drive, we drove from Hilton Head 24 hours one way, that's memorable in itself. 

 

• Most memorable coaching experience? 
  1. Honestly, here a few years ago, when our women were seeded 7th and and finished 2nd in the conference. We took out Randolph-Macon, who was the 2 seed, pretty easily at their place after being crushed by them in the regular season. We went up there in the quarter-finals and just waxed them, I'm not sure what it was 5-1, 5-2, something like that, but it was pretty quick. That was fun and then we held off Lynchburg; I knew that was going to be a good match. We beat them 5-4, in the tournament and we lost to them 5-4 in the regular season, so I knew that one was going to be close. We snuck into the Finals that year and I think that was a more special outcome for a whole season that I've had, wherever I've coached. In Chicago I had a double's team win back-to-back NCAA double's titles, that was special. Especially that first one, getting that first one, beating Pomona, the number 1 seed in the Finals that was a great experience, it was fun. The second one was when we beat Emory in the Finals, it was actually in Fredericksburg at Mary Washington. That one was more of a relief, I knew we were the best team. The first year I didn't know we were the best team. The second year, I knew those two girls were the best team in the country and I felt like they should beat everyone they played against, it was more of a relief to get through it. Those two years were very special with that team. It's hard enough to make the tournament, let alone win back-to-back. One of the players was my 5 player, so she wasn't even one of my most talented players, she was just really good at double's and they gelled and complemented each other real well. I think just the time with those two girls, it was Kendra Higgins, she was from Florida, and Chrissy Hoo was from the San Francisco area. Those two years were pretty special. 

 

• When did you know you wanted to be a coach? 
  1. I was in Hilton Head, South Carolina going to Junior College. I was in a Tennis Management/ business program they had there. We had a team, we have most of the people in the program on the team and Hilton Head is a big attraction for college teams during their spring break. In fact we take our team there every year. So we were a local team there, so we played, oh my gosh ,we played two to three matches a day; six or seven weeks. Of course all the teams came out and we would just play, play, play, play, play. I don't think we had limits on dates running back like that back then. So when I was down there it looked like something I wanted to to get involved in at some point. Then, when I had the opportunity to become a college coach, my first job was at William & Mary as an assistant. I jumped on it, even if I don't end up being a Division I coach I would love to get involved with Division III. That would be great, I saw that first hand. When I had the opportunity to do so, I took it and never looked back. That's when I decided I wanted to be a coach, it really resonated with me. 

 

• Aside from the sport, what is something you want your players knowing before they graduate? 
  1. It's been so long since I've thought about tennis stuff, since we lost most of last season. I guess it's more about the journey than the outcome, that's the big picture aspect that I try to get them in touch with in their four years. It's about how we do things, how you compete, how you handle adversity. How you prepare, how you commit, how you behave, how you treat each other, how you treat your opponent and not just the outcome. I mean I can schedule losses for them, that's not hard to do. I can schedule wins for them, but it's the whole journey, how we do things from the beginning of the season to the end, even over the summer when they are on their own. Just trying to get them to learn a life lesson through their college tennis experience and get the most out of it. I think that's what is special about this place. Recruiting here, every kid we get, they come for a great education but they also come to play tennis. I feel like we get a lot of kids that wouldn't be here if it wasn't for tennis. I think that's special because it means a lot to them. A lot of the kids we get aren't burned out. A lot of the 3 or 4 star kids that go to highly selective schools, ranked schools and all, they are a little burned out when they get there. I feel like on average, a lot of our kids have a lot of life in them and a lot of room for improvement in the way they compete and their skill set as well. We just try to get them to handle adversity, enjoy the journey and not be so focused on outcome goals but more on performance goals. Getting better, stronger, tougher, we talk a lot about getting gritty, blue collar, punching above weight class, stuff like that. A lot of coaches do that here, we just want a scrappy, gritty team, that is appreciative of their opportunities and appreciative that their parents were able to send them to college and appreciative of everyone's effort to give them a good experience. 

 

• When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? 
  1. I always wanted to be on the water. I thought working on the water, shipping, being at sea, being in the Navy or Coast Guard; I almost went in the Coast Guard when I was younger, right at the end of high school. I ended up going to the Apprentice School instead and worked on submarines and aircraft carriers. I wanted to be involved somewhere with Maritime I guess, then tennis got in the way. Well not really in the way I guess. I just kind of fell into coaching, but I don't regret it. I've met so many people because of tennis. I traveled all over, been to Asia a few times, been to South America, and I never would have gone to these places without tennis. So, it's been good. 

 

• Have you ever been thrown out of a game as a player or a coach? If so, please explain.
  1. No, I behave myself. When I was at William & Mary, our head coach got thrown out of a match against Princeton and he was a stickler for keeping control. So it was really weird when that happened, we made fun of him forever on that one. But no I never I never really got in trouble, I've gotten into it with other coaches before and my own players. I never get on anyone else's player though. I don't really care what they do as long as we control our stuff and can handle it. 

 

• Have you had a player of yours get thrown out of a game? How did you respond? 
  1. I had one player, one time he played for me for a very short time, very talented guy. He was disqualified for a time violation. Here's the story; alright, I was at Chicago, we were at the UAA quarter finals Carnegie Mellon was hosting and we were playing Brandeis first round. My number one player was it back in Philly, he was getting sworn in as a citizen, so he couldn't miss that. We figured we could get Brandeis without him. We were higher seed and then so I made a couple lineup decisions, I put this player in and he was kind of untested. I knew he was talented, but he kind of came on the team late and he played sparingly. But I moved him into the lineup and I probably had three or four other guys on the bench that could have gone out there and easily won, but I didn't foresee any issues with having him play. He went out there and he kind of got into it with this guy, he tried to change the score on him and made some bad calls. He took a bathroom break and never came back and never came back, like literally. He was gone for like 30 minutes. So the referee was like, "What do you want me to do?" I was like, "well, you gotta do your job, ring'em up." He disqualified him and we still never knew where he went, like we still don't know, it's a mystery to this day. We basically removed him from the team, I mean there were some other issues there as well, but he didn't come back on the team. We lost, we ended up losing that match 5-4. When you lose the first round of the quarter finals, you have to play 2 the next day. So we had to play Case and then NYU back-to-back for 5th place. We ended up winning both those games but you never want to lose the first round, so you can have a chance to play in the semi finals or the finals. 

 

• What drives you? 
  1. My kids, my son plays for me. He's a junior here, and I have another son who is going to be a senior in high school. I want him to come here. Personally, I've always looked ahead and really look forward to times where I've had my kids. I've lost so much time with them, you know, being a coach. Their birthdays are in the fall and I feel like being a coach I'm always gone on their birthday. Even when they were kids I was never at the parties, I was always at a tournament or something; regional tournament, or something. So you know, just to get some time back with them. Also, I guess the bigger motivation would be, I never want our teams not to be ready. I enjoy being competitive, I like being competitive. With recruiting I feel like we get kids with certain skill sets, we can make them competitive, we can make them tough. Then we're getting into better matches, we're able to compete with better teams for competitive teams. I think that motivates me just to have a competitive team and be able to go into situations and upset teams. I like being the underdog, but to have a real, legitimate chance to beat someone, you're going to have to have some skill. You can't just take beginners and turn them into something that can beat good teams. More bigger picture is that these kids are 18 to 22 years old. They are young, when I was 18 to 22 at one point, I remember what it was like. I think if you say something to an 18 to 22 year old it'll probably mean something to them when they're 30 or 35, they'll look back. So just having a consistent message getting them to grow during those our years you're having with them. So when they get older they can think back and appreciate the things that we made important as a program, I always try to keep that in mind. So like, take the high road, handle adversity, treat people well, just common sense type principles and ethics. It's really not about winning at all. I think better competitors and learning how to compete and getting tough and trying to take those lessons into life; I think that's what motivates me to try to stay consistent with that message. 

 

• Favorite superhero or fictional character? 
  1. See, I'm not a Marvel guy, I really just started watching comic book movies because of the shut down. My favorite though, would have to be, and probably because I'm older, is Superman. Just because those movies back then with Christopher Reeve, they were all we had. I don't think Batman's a real superhero. Yeah, I'm in that camp. But yeah for sure Superman, he didn't have many weaknesses except Kryptonite. He was bullet proof, he could fly around the world in like half a second, how can you beat that? 

 

• If you had a super power what would it be? 
  1. I would want to be as strong as Superman. Be super strong, pick up a car to save a kid. 

 

• What's your favorite food? 
  1. Probably seafood, more specifically, Stone Crabs. When I lived in Florida for a few years, my dad got transferred down there for his job and we lived on the water. Friends of mine had stone crab traps and I had never heard of them before but they're amazing. 

 

• Favorite Wesleyan Athlete? 
  1. It's you obviously! I mean you got the dunk last year, the whole crowd went wild. Yeah honestly, I think you have that. You went and played lacrosse, you jumped in that and had never played before. You just went out there and took it head on. Yeah you stand out, and I'm not just saying that. I mean you got that dunk last year and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because of how loud that place got. 

 

• What is one question that I didn't ask but should? 
  1. Favorite Movie! 

 

• Favorite Movie? 
  1. "Back to the Future" it's easily my favorite movie. I could watch that over and over again any time.