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Down but never out, the UVA Men’s Tennis Team completed an improbable and unexpected run to the NCAA Championship this spring to win the program’s seventh team title. The championship was UVA’s third under Lockhart Family Head Coach Andres Pedroso.
Pedroso recently sat near the team’s indoor courts at the Boar’s Head Sports Club to look back on the journey and to discuss the importance of having endowment support for the program in an ultracompetitive environment.
It means the world because I see how much it means to our community. And the way we did it—how hard the guys fought. We were dead in the water three or four times during the NCAA Tournament, and the guys just kept fighting and kept believing in themselves and stayed together. So it was a real culture national championship for this team. It just goes back to the friendships that we try to cultivate within the team, the mentality that we try to instill in them, and the work that they do on a daily basis on and off the court.
I really don’t think human beings are capable of winning a national championship the way we did without a spiritual force behind them. I’ve been telling people that this has been divine intervention at its finest. The God that I believe in—whatever higher power our student-athletes believe in—gave us the right words, gave us the right connections, gave us the friendships, the relationships, and the culture to stay together during some really tough times. This was a real spiritual experience for this team. I hope the guys believe in something bigger than themselves after this experience.
Looking back on the whole body of work. Remembering all the tough times, all the conversations, the long runs, the coffees, the team dinners at my house. All the moments where the guys or the coaches were like, “Ah, I don’t know if this is going to be enough.” And we just stuck with the plan, the mental work on and off the court. We tried to create this utopian culture on our team, and we strove for perfection. We never reached it, but I think us wanting it to be perfect really brought out some attributes that paid off in those final matches. What paid off was our fighting spirit, our resilience, our togetherness, our unity, and our belief that as the match gets longer and tougher, we get tougher to beat.
This year it was our second-round match that we were really in trouble versus Columbia on our home courts. They had us on the brink of defeat. And then against South Carolina in the round of 16, we were once again down five first sets in singles. And then we were down big time in the semifinal against Wake Forest, and we were in a dog fight the entire match with Texas in the final after losing the doubles point. This championship is different because we came from behind so many times in comparison to the others.
That support has been a monumental help. It has allowed us to pay for scholarships for our student athletes that we wouldn’t have been able to afford without the Lockhart gift. The money the endowment spins off goes into our “sport enhancement fund,” and we use it for expenses that our operating budget from the Athletic Department is not able to cover. Things like assistant coaches’ salaries, summer classes, health insurance for our international students, and other necessary investments to attract the best players in the world to our program. We’re trying to endow the entire program. Significant gifts like the Lockhart gift and several others have been a huge help, and they’ve taken a lot of pressure off when it comes to fundraising for immediate needs. However, we have a long way to go to finish the job!
It allows me to spend time with the players. It allows me to be on the court more. It allows me to really get to know the recruits and their families so that we make wise choices. It allows me to communicate with the families of our current players and their personal coaches. There’s so much relationship-building, trust-building, and communication that’s involved in running a championship caliber program.
The only way to protect your Olympic sport is by endowing it. This year, numerous Division 1 men’s tennis programs were cut, and that brought me an enhanced sense of urgency to endow this program fully. I don’t believe the University of Virginia men’s tennis program is ever going to get cut because of our success and the support that we have from the UVA community. But I do worry about not maintaining the finances necessary to stay at the top of college tennis, which is the best preparation for life that money can buy for our student-athletes. We are pushing these kids academically, we’re pushing them to be the best at their craft, and we’re pushing them to be amazing leaders and people of high character. The student athletes that our Olympic sports are producing are very impressive. They’re excelling in the classroom, legitimately competing for championships, they’re earning great jobs after school and they then participate in a cycle of “giving back,” which represents the culture of our University. The future success of Olympic sports at UVA will depend on our ability to endow these programs.
Incredibly optimistic and so grateful to be a part of it. You know, three out of five national championships! It’s hard to believe. Our fans and supporters and our alums are incredibly passionate, and I feel like they were a big reason why we got across the finish line in Athens. We’ve got a lot of people supporting us, but we need to keep expanding that community and telling our story and inspiring the community that the investments that they’re making in our program are worthwhile because of the student athletes that we’re producing. Like I said before, there is no better preparation for life for a young man or woman than the UVA student-athlete experience.
