Issue date: 7/25/02 Section: Front Page

Texas A&M men’s tennis coach Tim Cass has set his sights on the national championship to close his chapter at A&M. [Click to enlarge]

Texas A&M men's tennis coach Tim Cass said his father always told him that life was a collection of chapters. After ending his playing days and coaching for eight seasons at his alma mater, the University of New Mexico, Cass is in the process of writing what he considers one of the most important chapters so far.

He hopes his chapter with A&M ends with an NCAA national championship.

"It's not a secret to anyone on this campus or anyone in the nation that our goal here is to win a national championship," Cass said. "It's difficult for the most part because of tradition and the fact that we haven't won one yet."

Since taking the head coaching position at A&M in 1996, Cass has led the Aggies to unprecedented success, including a top 20 finish this season in which the Aggies made it to the NCAA round of 16 for the third consecutive season.

But, the world of tennis has changed a lot since Cass began playing near his home in southern California nearly 30 years ago.

"If you look at college tennis 25 years ago, it was far different than it is now," Cass said. "Back then the sport was dominated by Americans, and now if you look, probably 75 of the top 100 collegiate players are foreign.

"There's probably only two or three of us left coaching that are focused on trying to develop young 17 and 18 year old players from here instead of going overseas where you can bring in a 20 or 21-year-old freshman who will have a lot less growing pains than some of our younger kids have."

Cass' recruiting style has landed him praise around the world of college tennis, crediting his upbringing for his effort and his refusal to look for an easy way out.

"Kids have changed a lot, even since I started coaching 14 years ago," Cass said. "When I was growing up, if I came home and told my dad that the football coach made me run too much in practice, he would just laugh in my face ... I try to find the players to come here that still have a work ethic and a will to win."

After his dad signed him up for a tennis camp, Cass became interested in the game and began focusing on building a tennis career. His focus helped him become an All-American his senior season at New Mexico.

"I had always wanted to keep playing tennis after college," Cass said. "But after I graduated I realized I probably wasn't good enough to make a living playing pro tennis, so I turned my sights to coaching."

Months after graduating, Cass was hired as the head coach of the Lobos' tennis team at the age of 23, one of the youngest head coaches in NCAA history.

After rebuilding the program for two years, including his first season where he had to run an ad in the school newspaper just to find enough players to finish the season, Cass guided New Mexico to its first ever WAC Championship and began a string of six consecutive trips to the NCAA Championships before coming to A&M.

At A&M, the job was not much easier, but Cass started quickly and his first recruiting class in 1997 was ranked No. 1 in the nation by College Tennis Weekly.

In 2001, the Aggies reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Championships and were ranked No. 4 in the nation.

"There are jobs that you will always be interested in no matter what kind of career you have," Cass said. "A&M is certainly one of those jobs for a coach. I had always liked Texas A&M, and it was a spot that had a great tradition of supporting their sports programs. I pursued the job when it came open and I was excited that A&M was interested."

Cass remains one of the youngest coaches in NCAA tennis despite his 14 years of head coaching experience.

"Being the head coach, you kind of get thrown into being the bad guy every once in a while," Cass said. "But I always want my players to be able to talk to me and trust me. Whether it's problems with a girlfriend, their parents, a teammate or in the classroom, I think my players know they can sit in here and talk to me about it."

Now married with an eight month-old son, Cass is not setting any immediate plans to leave A&M.

"If we had won the national championship this season I might have retired," Cass jokes. "There might come a point where I feel like I've done all I can do here and it is time to give someone else an opportunity.

"I don't see myself coaching when I'm 60, but at the same time I really have no idea what it would take to get me to move on, or when it might happen," he said. 

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