By Roscoe Nance
Wearing two hats is old hat for Howard University's Larry Strickland, the longest tenured tennis coach in the MEAC.
Strickland is in his 27th season as coach of Howard's men's team and 25th as coach of the women's squad. He says that while his duel role is challenging, it is even more fulfilling, which explains his longevity.
"I've always enjoyed it,'' Strickland says. "Coaching became a passion for me after being a competitive player. I compete vicariously through my teams.''
The challenging aspect of coaching two teams is two-fold Strickland - finding the time to cover all of the bases that need to be covered for each squad and adapting his coaching psychology to meet each team's needs.
"The first thing is you have to be organized,'' he says. "There is no such thing as down time. By the grace of God, I have been able to get some real good volunteers to help me.''
As for the psychology that goes into coaching men and women, Strickland says "a completely different approach'' is required.
"They both approach the ball the same, but psychologically there is a big, big difference in coaching men and women,'' he says. "You have to handle each player a little different. The biggest difference is men are very win oriented. Women are more camaraderie oriented. One of my quests is to make sure I have a women's team that gets along well.''
Strickland says he realized in his second season coaching the Lady Bison wasn't what made the players tick.
"I had to make sure they were comfortable and they were getting what they wanted out of tennis so I could get what I wanted out of them. Being male myself, I was always on the same page with the men.''
Strickland says the quality of competition in the MEAC increased dramatically since he became coach of Howard's men's team in 1984.
"That very definitely has changed over the years,'' Strickland says. "There's competition at all levels. Year to year everybody is doing better job recruiting, and the conference has done a great job organizing.''
Strickland has played a key role in the development of tennis in the MEAC. The conference champion became an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships in mid 1998. Up until that time the MEAC Championships was contested based on individual competition with team scoring. Strickland authored a proposal that the conference use team competition in order to be consistent with the NCAA.
"It became a matter of everybody working hard to have the team concept,'' he says. That began to add depth to teams. They couldn't win with a few players. You had to have a total team. Once that NCAA opportunity came up, schools began to put more revenue behind tennis and began to look at the possibility of doing well at the NCAAs.''.
Strickland has been named MEAC Coach of the Year 10 times and has captured nine conference titles, five on the women's side and four on the men's. However, he says his most memorable moment came when his first athlete as named to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic team. Howard has had at least one Academic All-American each of the last 14 years.
"I've always felt it a tremendous honor that Howard entrusted me with scholarships for young people to get an education,'' says Strickland, who was a professor at Howard from 1992-99. "To know that we achieved All-American honors was fulfilling. My number one goal has been to graduate athletes.''
Strickland said that 98% of the athletes he has coached at Howard have graduated and that 75% graduated with honors.
"It's matter of getting the whole student athlete,'' Strickland says, explaining his athletes' academic successes. "Always one of the first considerations is will the individual be successful at Howard. At different times it's difficult (to find those athletes), but that's what it's about -- searching and finding those people. That's where the real competition comes in, finding people who fit the mold you have put in place. The No.1 thing is doing your homework and getting people who not only have athletic ability, but who also have the academic ability to compete.''
Strickland is pleased with how his teams are competing this spring and is optimistic that both will do well at the MEAC Championships April 15-17 at the Millbrook Tennis Center in Raleigh, N.C.
The Lady Bison, the 2010 North Division champions, are again first in their division with a 3-0 record. The squad has a strong nucleus consisting of Michelle Brown, the 2010 MEAC Player of the Year, Brittney Morgan, the 2010 MEAC Rookie of the Year, and freshmen Katelyn Stokes and Brooke Hawthorne.
"They're at a point where any of them can play No.1,'' Strickland says.
Christopher Brown and Omar Haloui are the top players for the Bison men.
"The pure determination of the student-athletes will be the key (in the MEAC Championships),'' Strickland says. "It's going to come down to how bad they want to win.''