Aug. 1, 2007
Orlando, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - In early June, Stephanie Nickitas was named the 11th head coach in UCF women's tennis history. Since arriving on campus, she immediately began preparing for the 2007-08 season, and has been constantly on the road in search of some of the best players in the country.
Nickitas, a native of Tampa and a University of Florida graduate in 1999, is embarking on her first stint as a college head coach and jumped right into the recruiting process as soon as she was hired.
"I've been doing a lot of recruiting and making contacts with coaches I've known from growing up in Florida to some of the academies and smaller local clubs around the state," said Nickitas. "I'm just trying to get the word out there that I am here and coaching at UCF.
"Recruiting is one of the first things I've been trying to get involved in. We have one open scholarship for this year, so I am looking to most likely fill it for the spring. That has been kind of a first priority for me. I'm really looking hard for a lot of Florida tennis players and American juniors."
So how long did it really take for Nickitas to head out in hopes of finding future Knights? Not long at all.
"I was in the office for about four or five days and then went to Memphis, Tenn., for the Girls' 18 National Clay Court Championships," said Nickitas, who was an assistant coach for two years at Duke before venturing to Orlando. "It's a big junior national tournament and a big recruiting event for college coaches and players. Once the players sign in you cannot talk to them anymore. So beforehand they have a college coaches forum, where you are in this huge room and it's kind of like a college fair and all of the coaches are sitting there.
"And next I'm getting ready to go out to California for the biggest recruiting tournament of the year, the Girls' 18 National Hard Court Championships, which is basically called The Nationals. This year it's in Berkeley, Calif."
As for this year's squad, Nickitas is anxious to meet the team, get the racquets out and get even deeper in her first year as the UCF head coach.
"I am very excited to just start my head coaching career," smiled Nickitas. "There are so many pieces of the puzzle to put together, and just trying to do a little bit here and there. I'm just excited to lead a program and develop players and go in the direction I'd like to take them. There's a lot of potential I think that has been untapped here so I can't wait to start working with the players.
"The freshmen come in for orientation on Aug. 14, so I'll get to meet them and then the rest of the girls arrive later on. They'll start conditioning practices the first week of school, but we won't start on the courts until Sept. 5."
When the team does begin classes in late August, Nickitas already has a practice plan in place.
"I kind of have my style, what I believe in coaching wise and how I like to run practices," said Nickitas. "But I feel like, without having seen what they've done in the past, I feel like I'm going to bring a stronger work ethic and more structure to the program with focus on all aspects of the game include strength and conditioning. I'm just hoping we can be one of the strongest and hard-working teams out there and we'll see what happens."
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