Youth, experience, and enthusiasum are three words SIUC athletic director Jim Hart used to describe David Paschal, the new men’s tennis coach.

By Gus Bode

While sitting and chatting with Paschal, it didn’t take long to figure out that Hart was right about the enthusiasum part. The 24- year-old coach was eager to share information, answer any question, and even flash back on an old memory. He is full of ideas on what he wants to do with the program, and has a scheduled agenda for the team.

This program needs to go in phases, he said with a serious look. The team finished seventh last year, and we want to move two places up the standings from that every year. I’m recruiting heavily and hoping to get a player from Argentina that is rated in the top four there.

Paschal did not begin playing tennis until he reached high school. In fact, baseball was his first love.

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I didn’t start playing til high school. I was a huge baseball fan and player. Baseball was probably my best sport, he said. I hadn’t ever really picked up a tennis racquet until my freshman year of high school.

After taking his initial swings with the racquet, Paschal qualified for the state match three out of his four years, and was an Illinois all-state tennis player his senior year.

His impressive play in high school earned Paschal a spot on the SIUE tennis team where he was a teammate of his predecessor Jeremy Rowan.

In my first year at Edwardsville, we were ranked in the top five in the country. My fourth year we ranked seventh in the country, and we were always in the top-15 (during his four years there). In fact some of the players that came from there were in the top 30 in the world, he said.

Paschal graduated from SIUE in 1993 with a degree in business, and took a job as the assistant tennis coach for both the men and women at Washington College in Maryland. During his coaching there, Paschal had something rare happen to his team.

At Washington(a Division III school) our number one and two singles players played each other for the national championship, and the number two player won so we had the number one and two players in the country, he said.

Upon the decision of his former teammate to take up studies at Louisiana State University, Paschal was told about the opportunity to coach at SIUC near his home in Highland. Paschal was given an interview, and then hired the following day.

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One of my old coaches, who is friends with Jeremy (Rowan), heard from Jeremy that he was leaving and called me. I got an interview and hired the next day, he said. I love this area. My family’s from here, and I like the midwest attitude more so than that of the east coast.

He will also continue his studies at SIUC, trying to earn a master’s degree in physical education.

SIU has a tremendous amount to offer athletes, student athletes and coaches, he said.

Over the past summer, Paschal was the coach of the Tennis Europe Junior team where he had the opportunity to see some of the rising talent in the world.

I did some recruiting while in Europe and I think I’m going to get the kid from Argentina, he said. It was a lot of fun traveling to the different countries.

Hart said he was excited about having Paschal as the men’s tennis coach.

We’re excited about Dave, and we think he’ll do a good job. He’s got a lot of ideas, and he might be more successful if we had more money to give him, Hart said.

Hart said the decision to hire Paschal was made even easier due to the fact that Rowen and Paschal were teammates.

It made the decision easy, especially with Dave’s enthusiasum, he said. It was a great trade. Jeremy wants to be a professor and Dave wants to be a tennis coach.

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