Darragh Glavin, took over as the new head coach for the men’s tennis team, bringing with him years of experience even though this is the first time he holds the position of head coach. He also brought Connor Barnard onto staff in August as an assistant coach.

Coach Glavin comes from the University of Miami as a former assistant coach. 

Glavin became interested in tennis by a French exchange student that lived in his home when he was younger.

 “She was very big into tennis and then started playing with me outside my garden. Then, we moved to a new house and the first thing I wanted to do is find a tennis club,” Glavin said. 

Glavin continued to play up at the collegiate level, playing at Old Dominion and wanting to continue his tennis career by becoming a coach. 

When asked why Glavin chose WSU, his reason was the community. He made it a goal to be a head coach and he wanted to do that somewhere that felt more like a home than a job. 

“Just knowing and seeing the community behind the teams here and in WSU, like the support in the community. That was a big thing something that my family and I were looking for,” Glavin said.

Glavin spent a lot of time on the sidelines during his collegiate tennis career because he was injured. While he was injured, Glavin wanted to help his team in any way that he could. He began to see the game from a coach’s perspective. 

“JI was inspired through the work they did and wanted to continue being around the sport that I loved and realized I could do that [as a coach],” Glavin said. 

Barnard hopes to be as much help as possible to Glavin by getting to know the players on the team and by helping build confidence in each player.

Glavin and Barnard’s goal is to win an American Athletic Conference championship. Glavin said he also wants to help lead his team to an NCAA tournament. 

Glavin said he and Barnard have been discussing coaching philosophies. They’ve come to the conclusion that the best philosophy is to lead by example of what hard work can do for you. Glavin has either coached or helped coach many top 25 teams in the nation and believes that if you do the right things you will be rewarded. 

“I think it’s a great place for tennis and a great community,” Glavin said, “but it’s a sport that people don’t know much about. It’s a fun one to get out and watch and get behind and they’ll be surprised with how different it is to tennis they see on TV, the energy and how loud it can be.”