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Mr. Gary Albertine

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Email: Jgalbertine@aol.com

Head Men’s Tennis Coach 1983-1987.

’88 Cajuns celebrate NCAA campaign

Bruce Brown
bbrown@theadvertiser.com

It was a special time, marked by special achievement, and for members of Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns men’s tennis team, 1988 didn’t feel like that long ago.
“It’s like it was last week,” said Gary Albertine, who coached that squad into the second round the NCAA Tournament, still the school’s only appearance in the team event. “It feels like it’s time to go to practice in a little while.”
The squad was honored at halftime of UL’s football game with Northwestern State on Saturday night at Cajun Field, part of a reunion weekend that featured a duel with current Cajuns earlier in the day and plenty of time to exchange stories and memories.
“We’re having a blast,” Albertine said. “Without question those were the best years of our lives. I hadn’t been back in so long, and I hadn’t seen some of these guys in 15 years.”
Albertine was joined by his All-American doubles combo of Ashley Rhoney and Bret Garnett, as well as Paul Reekie, Jay Bailey, Curtis Hollinger, Robert Pellizzi, David Hoheisel and Kirk Headley. Only Tony Minnis was missing.
“It’s really fun,” said Rhoney, the tennis director at City Club at River Ranch and one of only two members of the team to stay in the Lafayette area. “I remember all the good times we had on the court and off the court.
“We really worked so hard to try to achieve something that had never been done before, and this was a close team. These guys all seem like your brothers.”
“It feels like we were just here,” said Reekie, the English import now a successful businessman in Houston. “The only difference is, it’s 20 years later with your kids. I had never seen Jay’s kids.”
“I have nothing but fond memories of those days,” said Atlanta-based Bailey, who was making just his second trip to Lafayette since his college days. “We were driving around town, and it seems it really hasn’t changed that much.”
Garnett, the South Carolina product who formed such a deadly doubles team with Rhoney, is now living in Rhoney’s hometown of Hickory, N.C.
“It really is a small world,” Albertine said.
“I took Ashley’s old job,” Garnett said.
The Minnis brothers were Baton Rouge products, and both are back in their hometown _ Patrick in broadcasting and Tony coaching LSU’s women’s team.
As a newlywed, Pellizzi has some catching up to do with his teammates as he pursues business interests in Dallas.
Hollinger is a Lafayette attorney who has been active in junior development.
“They’re all like your kids, then you don’t see them for years,” Albertine said. “(Current UL coach) Justin McGrath has treated us way better than we deserved this weekend. It’s like we all won Wimbledon.”
That’s one of the few things the 1988 Cajuns didn’t do in that special era.

Published in the Daily Advertiser, September 18, 2005

Athletic Network Footnote: Tony Minnis
did participate in the tennis competition at noon. The quality of tennis displayed by the 1988 team indicated they are still spending some quality time on the courts.

Albertine a Great UL Coach

September 09, 2005 – Curtis Hollinger
Guest Columnist

This is the first of a two-part series of stories on the Sept. 15-17 reunion of former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun tennis coach Gary Albertine and his players.

A couple of weeks ago, I was present when University of Louisiana President Ray Authement spoke to the UL athletic director search committee and proclaimed that the selection of the university’s next athletic director would be one of the most important hirings in the school’s history.

The committee, of which I am a part, then decided the person chosen to lead the athletic department must be a visionary who is able to articulate his or her vision throughout various segments of the community and be able to generate unprecedented support from fans and businesses alike.

There have been a few recent UL coaches that come to mind who embodied these qualities, and the national success of their respective programs bear witness to their superb leadership (i.e Yvette Girouard and Tony Robichaux).

But from 1981-88, the UL men’s tennis team and the Lafayette tennis community experienced unparalleled, top-level college tennis success under the guidance of its visionary coach, Gary Albertine.

On Sept. 15-17, Albertine and his team will reunite to reminisce about their past glory, share stories about each other and will attempt to compete against the current UL team in a dual doubles match.

I say “attempt to compete” because this group of 40-year-old has-beens have NO chance against the young Ragin’ Cajun tennis team, no matter what anyone thinks.

But back to Albertine. Those who knew coach Albertine will remember a quiet man who was, well, not exactly the tallest man in the world, but proved to be a giant of a college tennis coach who developed the Ragin’ Cajun program into a top 15-ranked Division I program.

It was Albertine’s program that produced the school’s only All-American players to date – Tarek El Sakka, Ashley Rhoney and Bret Garnett, as well as a No.1-ranked doubles team (Rhoney and Garnett) and the only tennis team in UL history to qualify for and win a round at the NCAA Team Championships.

His team success was merely a natural extension of Albertine’s personal success. As an LSU player, Albertine was named LSU’s first-ever Athlete of the Year and was an All-SEC player for two years. And although his professional tennis career was not quite spectacular, he immediately excelled when provided the opportunity to coach the UL team without ever having any prior college coaching experience.

Albertine’s vision was clear – he wanted to win with tennis players who were from Southern states, who were accustomed to winning and whose games he could further develop through grueling physical workouts.

His first recruit was Tony Minnis, a young man who Albertine simply describes as “a winner,” and for four straight years Tony won nearly every match he played at UL.

Amazingly, Albertine successfully recruited three of the South’s premier junior players, all of whom were Southern Junior tennis champions – Jay Bailey from Atlanta, Rhoney from Hickory, N.C., and Garnett of Columbia, S.C.

He later recruited a young, ground stroke-less, serve-and-volley player from Alabama named Curtis Hollinger, a slightly unorthodox but highly effective player from England (Paul Reekie), a German tank of a player from Westerville, Ohio (David Hoheisel) and the abundantly talented and happy-go-lucky player from Baton Rouge named Patrick Minnis to compliment Bailey, Rhoney and Garnett.

But aside from coach Albertine’s obvious recruiting ability, the man was a pioneer of a coach in that he actually fielded a tennis team composed of three black players at the same time, during a period in American tennis history when there was no national agenda promoting multiculturalism in tennis as the case is today.

This is a significant reflection of the quality of man Albertine is. If you could play, he would play you. From my perspective, he did not allow artificial barriers to factor into his decision on who he recruited or who he developed in practice or who he placed in the starting lineup.

I dare say there was no other Top 20 men’s Division I college tennis team as diverse as the Ragin’ Cajun tennis team of 1988.

And I suppose it was Albertine’s integrity and forthright style that made it possible for him to secure the tremendous community support for the UL tennis team, despite the depressed Lafayette economy of the 1980’s.

The Memphis native worked constantly to garner financial support from tennis patrons by creating and hosting special events and camps. Because of his vision and belief in our ability to compete at the highest level, Albertine raised enough money for our team to travel to nearly every major college tournament and match we scheduled and qualified for.

Our equipment was always quality – except for Jay Bailey’s Zebra racquets – and attendance at our home matches was among the best in America.

Next week, the old coach will return to Lafayette and reunite with his team and many of the friends he made during his brief stay in Lafayette.

In ending my conversation with coach Albertine the other day, a few of his final words reminded me of another part of what made him a success, and that was his fierce competitive nature.

I asked him if he still jumped rope and was in good shape. He assured me that he was in better shape than any of his former players. That’s the beauty of Albertine. He spoke the truth and he walked the walk and he convinced the Lafayette community to believe in his team.

To borrow one of his favorite phrases, coach Albertine could “flat out” coach.

(Curtis Hollinger is a guest columnist covering tennis for The Daily Advertiser.)

Originally published September 9, 2005