Press Conference for UK Tennis Coach Dennis Emery retiring and being named special assistant to the athletic director.[B][U]
Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart[/U][/B]
[I]Opening Statement …[/I]
“Sometimes when we go through these press conferences, sometimes they are not for good things and sometimes they are difficult for a loss or something like that. This is one of those – I would call it a celebration of someone who has given an unbelievable amount to this university over the last three decades. I want to spend just a few minutes and talk about what Dennis Emery has meant to Kentucky. I have been here 10 years, so I have been here a third of his career and that is shocking within itself. When you look at icons, and you look at people that have the opportunity to change lives, and to change the face of a sport, and to impact literally thousands of people, you don’t have a lot of those folks. In our business, not a lot of people hang around for more than five to 10 years. That is usually considered a long time. Three decades is amazing. Truly amazing what he has given the University of Kentucky and the city of Lexington. He has coached probably more people in this city and developed the game of tennis in this community more than we can ever understand or imagine.
“If you talk to Dennis at any point in time and you say, ‘I met this guy’ and you give him a name he will say, ‘Oh, I coached his son, or I coached his daughter. Or, I saw his child play.’ Sure enough, he has. That’s just on the tennis side of it. Then you get to the competitive side of it, and you start looking at all the things and all the people that he has coached and tournaments that have been won and championships that have been won and the players that have grown within the game. That is amazing.
“And then you look at his family and you say what an amazing guy. He has got a wonderful wife in Brenda and she has coached all around this city at high schools and the youth level. And you look at their three children and what they have given to this community. He’s got a family member that serves this country, he’s got children that have played the game. He has been a great husband. He has been a great father and you say ‘Well, why make a change? Why do anything different that he had been doing?’ I have been in this thing long enough to know that you very seldom get to go out on top. It just came to my attention that there are so many skills that Dennis has that we have not utilized as an athletic department. So, for us to take full advantage of his incredible skill set, all of his relationships, the amazing ambassador that he is for the University of Kentucky; it was a question that I asked him. Would you be interested in making a move to help me? As I told him earlier about 10 minutes ago, my time has become somewhat compressed with the time schedule and there seems to be a lot of things that seem to hit your plate. The good will and the ambassador piece that is so important to our department is what he does amazingly well and I could use some help with that. I am excited that he was open to that conversation.
“Then you talk about going out on top and the amazing year that we had with Eric Quigley, conference championship and specifically the things that have happened over the last four years. But, the 10 years I have been here in men’s tennis, it was something that I wanted to raise with him.
“Trying to put a ribbon around my comments, we are fortunate as an institution to have the Emery family and to have specifically this guy be a part of us for 30 years, and what I would hope is 10-15 more, somewhere in that range. Somewhere in that range, but I mean it is his call. We’ve got a spot for him to help us become the university that we want to be. We know how much it means to him and we want to make sure we honor that, but more importantly take advantage of all the skills that he has and the love he has for this university. We are fortunate.”
“We will transition into the next era of our tennis program. We will have to go through an HR process this next week or so and I think we can put a ribbon on it fairly quickly. That is all I am allowed to talk about. But, in the meantime, we are very, very thankful that we can say thanks for 30 unbelievable years, what you have done for tennis, for the good of this university, the good of this city. It is amazing. We owe you a lot. We look forward to working with you in so many ways going forward and it is an exciting time for the University of Kentucky and many, many thanks for what you have given us.”
[I]On what Dennis’ role will be moving forward …[/I]
“It’s going to be a variety of things. As I said earlier, Dennis has got relationships that extend well beyond anything any of us that have only and I say only, 10 years. I’ve been here 10 years and that seems like a long time. He’s been here 30. I would dare say there’s virtually no one in this community that he hasn’t had a relationship in some way, shape or form. Then you being to expand that circle of friends and it gets pretty wide. So, I think that there are a variety of things that I would hope and I think that he would absolutely thrive on. It’s the ability to be an incredible ambassador for things that I can’t get to all of the time, places we can’t go and places we need representation. Really, really important. Two, fostering relationships with people that we have not been able to, at times, do as good a job as we need to do. Everything from former athletes to some of our donor relations that I have not been able to be as good as I need to be. And, three, the other piece in that is to help with the fundraising component for K-Fund and for our department to help move some of these projects that we’ve got going forward to reality. Those are the roles that I see. That’s a pretty big task.”
[B][U]Kentucky Men’s Tennis Head Coach Dennis Emery[/U][/B]
[I]Opening Statement …[/I]
“I want to thank everybody for coming today, as Mitch (Barnhart) said, I’ve been here 30 years and man it has flown by. Trust me when I tell you, I can remember the first match I coached here, it just really doesn’t seem possible. I can’t believe it has been 30 years. Going forward, when Mitch came to me, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, what he proposed to me, it seemed like what he was saying fit perfectly with the skill set I have. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mitch and what he has done. I have seen how effective he can be when he makes up his mind that he is going to build up a program, he does it. It’s been great to watch not only what he has done with our program to improve it but volleyball, women’s basketball, softball, all the sports that for so long here were not that good, they are now very good and they are very good because of Mitch. Mitch, thank you for this opportunity that you are giving me.
“I felt the time was right. Mitch spoke to this a little bit, (but) there were two things that I always wanted to do: I wanted to go out on top. I would have liked to gone further than the round of 16 this year but we’re going to run with it since we won the SEC and went undefeated in that so we are going to claim victory on that. But I always wanted to go out on top. I never wanted to feel like there was any slippage in my performance. Secondly, I always wanted to leave a really solid foundation moving forward and I know we’re doing that. Reflecting back, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect here lately, reflecting back on 30 years there was something that kind of jumped out at me. My first year, I came in 1982, I had a sophomore on my team from Louisville, Ky., his name was Paul Varga and Paul ended up being the all-time, at that time, the all-time winningest player in UK singles history. He is now the CEO of Brown-Forman. He has moved on and done well, that was in 1982 so now in 2012 we come around and have Eric Quigley. Eric Quigley is also from Louisville, Ky., he was the NCAA singles finalist and he is the Rafael Osuna award winner and as my wife told me to explain that, that is based nationally on character and competitive excellence, it is sort of the ultimate award you can win as a collegiate player. He became the all-time winningest singles player in college tennis history. Those two guys are a nice symmetry that I would love our program to represent; it’s also the type of student-athlete that I think this university wants to represent. One of my favorite days in fact, Mitch was there, one of my favorite days in coaching was not on the court it was when Paul Varga called and he said coach I’m being inducted into the Gatton Business School Hall of Fame, would you come? We went and when we got there he talked about what it meant to him, now being the CEO of Brown-Forman, what playing tennis at the University of Kentucky meant to him, how that aided in his development. Really that is what coaching is all about, seeing these guys grow, not everybody can become the CEO of a big company like that but watching them all grow at their own level and knowing this is what it’s all about. These two guys represent what I want our program to represent.
“If you’ll bear with me for a minute, there are just so many memories; there are so many memories, just a couple special days for me. We won the SEC in 1992 and it was almost a surreal thing. Going out to play that match, the morning of that match I just had this feeling we were going to win for sure, we had never won the conference. You have those moments as a coach where you realize this is a big one; this one can change everything for a while. I had this feeling that there was just no way we could lose that match. I’ve never really had it. We beat LSU that day. I’ve never had the feeling before or after or anything so that day was special to me.
“In 1997 we beat what really was one of the best college teams of all time, the Stanford team in 1997. They had Bob and Mike Bryan who went on to win I don’t know how many Grand Slams and Paul Goldstein. That team actually won four NCAA Championships. We beat them at the National Indoor’s in Louisville. A really special day.
“Another one was in 1988 we lost in the finals of the Elite Eight to Stanford. We keep coming back to Stanford. All my memories are Stanford and Georgia. We lost to them in the Elite Eight. We had on our team that year four players who ended up being top-200 in the world. Now, unfortunately, Stanford had three who ended up being top-30 in the world, including Patrick McEnroe and David Wheaton. I felt like that was special to me because I felt like that was the best match I ever coached in. It was right during the hay day of college tennis. There were 4,000 people at that match in Athens, Georgia. Just a great day.
“Two more, kind of moving out of the 80s and into the modern era of college tennis. In 2010 we broke Virginia’s 78-match win streak. They were ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the country. We broke that win streak. What was really special about that to me was, so many of the things that you do because of the way the NCAAs are set up, because of the way the SEC is set up, so many of these great things that you do, you end up doing them on the road or at neutral sites. We won this one at home and that was a lot of fun.
“Then, going undefeated this year beating Georgia. I’ve got three more things here real quick. I just feel like God has really blessed me over these 30 years to do what I’m doing and I’m doing it here. It’s a very special place.
“They told me, ‘Don’t do a press conference because you’re going to get emotional. Don’t do this.’
“Then, just to conclude, I wanted to thank my wife, Brenda. She’s been the coach’s coach.”
[I]On what it means to go out on top…[/I]
“I think we all want to do that and like Mitch said, it’s not always easy to do that. We had really a great series of teams. In 2007 we missed the tournament for the first time and I said, ‘I never want to go through that again.’ So, it was very important to me to kind of do it on my terms and go out when I felt like we were in a really good position. I even talked to Coach (Cedric) Kauffmann after we beat Georgia down there this year and, you know, huge nasty crowd like they always have. You just get to where you hate those guys. One, because they win, and two, because they really rub it in your face when they do. So, for us to win that one was really good. Coach Kauffmann had a huge part, a huge, huge part in that win and I remember telling him after that match, ‘I just don’t think it gets a lot better than this.’ Because, when we won that match, we had a clear shot to the title. So, it was important to me to go out on top.”
[I]On whether he was tempted to continue coaching rather than retire…[/I]
“I love coaching as you all know. John (Clay) and you all covered me forever and thank you for doing that. I just felt like the stars really lined up perfectly on this. For me, what Mitch was proposing, like I said before, was something that I’ve always wanted to do. I never kind of wanted to be wondering, ‘Am I slipping a little bit?’ or anything. This way, I know I’m not and we’re in great hands moving forward. It’s going to be interesting going out to the matches.”
[I]On what the timeline was for his decision to retire…[/I]
“Mitch came to me and spoke to me after the conference tournament. We won the regular season and then after the conference tournament he came to me about his thoughts. So, he initiated this but it’s something I’ve thought about for a while, in all honesty. Not because I didn’t want to coach, but because I feel that there are other things I can do also. I really love the university. I feel like this is something, I feel like I can really help Mitch achieve his goals. When Mitch comes to you and sits down and tells you, one-on-one, ‘This is my vision for the athletic department over the next seven years.’ It’s a very compelling argument when he tells you what he wants to do. The thing is, as I know he does, I feel like we’re really close to being a top-15 program in all sports. For somebody that’s been here 30 years, let me tell you, that’s a completely stunning revelation. It takes a lot of time to build the overall program that he’s talking about. I think we’re right on the cusp of being a top-15 program and with the hires that he’s making, I think it’s almost inevitable with the support that he’s been doing. I really wanted to be a part of that.”
[I]On what challenges lay ahead for the incoming head men’s tennis coach…[/I]
“The recruiting is obviously the big thing. Coach (Cedric) Kauffman has done a great job. I feel like we have done a really good job. One of the reasons why we’ve been really successful over the last three years is we’ve really done a great job in our recruiting philosophy. A big part of what needs to happen for us is at some point we’ll build a new indoor tennis building. That’s something that I know Mitch (Barnhart) is committed to and I’m committed to. That’s something that we’re going to have to do going forward. I think keeping the recruiting at the level that we have over the last three years is going to be the main thing. What we have left here – I know we’re losing (Eric) Quigley and we’re losing (Alex) Musialek, who were two great players, two top-10 all-time winners here, but we’ve got a really good, solid foundation and a good class coming in. I feel great about the direction we’re going. In fact, I’m stepping away now because I feel so good about the direction we’re going, not because, ‘Oh my God, we’re losing Quigley.’ ”
[I]On what the keys were to turning the program around when he first arrived as the UK head coach…[/I]
“I think the main thing was Hilary Boone. I went out to see Hilary and it sounds crazy now because of all the fundraising people do, but back then this really didn’t happen where you name sports facilities for somebody in tennis, it was really a unique thing. Hilary stepped up to the plate and that was a huge thing when we were able to bring our team on campus to practice and show the recruits this new facility. At that time, I won’t say it was state of the art, but it was really one of the nicer buildings, certainly in the SEC. Then later on, we got involved with fundraising for our outdoor stadium. Again, Hilary stepped up to the plate with that one and the Ryan Holder foundation; the combination of those. Our outdoor facility is as nice as anybody’s. And it’s not because we spent more money, it just has such a good feel to it and when the recruits come in and we have them on these official visits and stuff they all comment about how unique and how nice our facility is. I think those two things, that facilities piece of the puzzle, you just cannot in any way underestimate that.”
[I]On his budget when he first arrived …[/I]
“My first contract was $13,100 with no benefits. Brenda will remember those days with no benefits because she was pregnant at that time. It was $13,100 and that is a number that is burned into my mind. We were top 10 several years in the 80’s and 90’s and you know, won a conference championship, but none of this really took off until Mitch got here and really put the emphasis on these Olympic sports. People always ask me what is the biggest change in 30 years. One of them is obviously the pay and the contracts for coaches. That is something that I don’t think any of us saw coming. But, certainly the emphasis that is now being placed by these spring sports by all of the athletic directors like Mitch (Barnhart) when you have these national rankings and points, it has been a great thing for us as coaches of these sports. It used to be a long time ago, ‘We are going to have a team and we are going to pay you this. Don’t get us in any trouble and don’t wreck the van kind of thing.’ We have come a long way from that. I would be really remised not to thank Cliff Hagan. When Cliff hired me, he interviewed me three times for this job. I always wondered did I mess up these interviews this bad that I had to be interviewed three times. None of this really would be possible without Mr. Hagan and him kind of taking a chance on a guy from Austin Peay.”
[I]On the future of the program and the impact Cedric Kauffmann has had on the program …[/I]
“Cedric (Kauffmann) is just a phenomenal coach, and when I name off all of these highlights, it kind of struck me this morning how many of these highlights he was involved in as a coach. What a great job he has done for us as a player and as a coach. We really approached Cedric as more of a co-coach instead of a head coach/associate head coach situation. I think we were very unique in that way. Beyond being a great coach, he is a great friend. I think the one thing you see is how important these associate head coaches are becoming in this sport and in all the sports. Your staffs are becoming so much more important.”
