In modern day college sports, where coaches are switching teams almost as much as professional free agents, it’s rare to find a successful coach that is happy where he is coaching. Add to that the fact that it’s a successful coach, and that he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. It is about as rare as finding oil in your backyard.
This scarcely seen event is currently going on in the coaching career of men’s tennis coach Pat Klingelhoets, who is right now coaching his team in the second round of the men’s tennis Big Ten Championships.
In his 21st season as head coach, Klingelhoets is no stranger to the ups and downs that come with coaching in the Big Ten. The factor that keeps him coaching here, and no place else, is simply the city.
“I think Madison is just such a great town and there’s such good spirit here with UW athletics, and I think, for me, I just wouldn’t want to be anyplace else,” Klingelhoets commented. “I think Madison is just one of the greatest places in the world to live, and I just enjoy the city and have a lot of friends here. That’s something I can’t get anyplace else.”
Klingelhoets graduated from UW in 1972 with a degree in zoology and returned to take over the head coaching position for the 1982-83 season from former coach Dave Pelisek. As UW’s 17th tennis coach in school history, he ranks first in career and Big Ten wins — an impressive feat considering the continual raising of the competitive level for men’s tennis in the Big Ten. Klingelhoets’ career is the third-longest running at UW behind Dennis Tiziani [24 years] and Peter Tegen [27 years].
“The former coach for nine years — Denny Pelisek — convinced me to come here and try coaching. I was originally teaching pro in Janesville then in Madison,” said Klingelhoets. “When [Pelisek left], he came to me and asked me if I would try it for awhile and see if I liked it. Of course you think maybe I’ll do it for a year or two, then pretty soon it’s 21 years later”
With many ups and downs over his years at Madison, and with his teams doing as well as 20-8 [1988-89 team] and as poor as 5-18, [1994-95 team], Klingelhoets has managed to forge Wisconsin men’s tennis into a premier program. With this year’s team falling on hard times because of its youth and inexperience, Klingelhoets is still able to show that the intangible factors are still important, displaying them in the team’s first round Big Ten championship win over Michigan.
“We got a really young team, and we got a lot of freshmen on this team that are going to be a lot better players a year from now. We knew going into this year that we were going to be young, and we were hoping maybe some of the freshmen were going to come along a little faster than they did,” Klingelhoets commented. “Actually Ward Bortz came along extremely well some of the other freshmen are just a year away. Our plan is to get these guys out and playing a lot over the summer and I think next fall all these freshmen can help us.”
With the added experience that this season has brought to the large number of underclassmen, and with a surprising win over highly-ranked Michigan the other day, the men’s tennis team looks to have only better days ahead of it. The added year of experience will allow Klingelhoets to raise his team’s play to the next echelon from the middle of the pack to a truly elite, championship-caliber squad.
