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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 14, 2004)
UTAh Sports The Battalion Page 3 • Wednesday, July 14, 2C Oh, Henry! Texas A&M gets gold in hiring of track and field coach Pat Henry tv;nl By Shawn C. Millender _ THE BATTALION he detail— mfidrJ Since Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne ;t the£B r ' vet * ' n Aggieland in December of 2002, he has ftmonstrated neither reluctance nor hesitation to thelii h 1 ing in top-flight coaching talent, xtentic-l h'c'lcss pursuit of athletic excellence led to probler P' rsonne * changes in men’s and women’s basket- >eer dr Tuesday Byrne announced his next step the path to the elusive national championship 2i pjjith the hiring of former Louisiana State Univer- 3 lives S’y trac k and field coach Pat Henry. ord a J“We need these people in College Station to ■dp us build champions,” Byrne said. ■ Henry joins a cadre of A&M coaches as the only —<f Mne to have previously won a national champion- |sliip, something he has done in leaps and bounds. In 17 seasons of coaching LSU’s men and omen’s track teams, Henry won an unprec- ented 27 national championships. He brings an npressive resume to a program that has yet to in its first. “LSU is a very tough environment to leave,” enry said. "We’re excited about this challenge, e think we can do some things here at A&M. 1 is a place where we’ve looked forward to this ces haJ Pportunity '” n - ■ Henry says the lure to come to A&M didn’t j^KBpawn from the facilities or the talent already in ipmeni. andsirf i and £;:| 'enienul 'he place, but the biggest factor in deciding to come to College Station was the people. “The best recruiter in the room is right here,” Henry said, motioning towards Byrne. “His staff is a big reason Gail (Henry’s wife) and I came here.” Henry is replacing former A&M coach Ted Nel son, who resigned June 28 after serving as track coach for 12 years. “Ted has been a friend for a long time,” Henry said. “I hope he stays involved with the program - he really is a value to the program.” Henry said his first task will be to evaluate the personnel within the program. “My initial priority is to surround myself with people who we can be successful with, staff-wise,” Henry said. “Then we can evaluate talent.” Byrne went to great lengths to stress the impor tance of wooing Henry away from LSU. “I’ll quote John Thornton, who told me, ‘If we get Pat Henry at Texas A&M that would be like taking Coach Krzyzewski away from Duke,”’ Byrne said. “He recruits dual-sport athletes, and he’s been killing us here in Texas while he was at LSU.” Henry said recruiting talent is not the only key to winning meets and national championships. “It’s not always about recruiting the greatest high school athlete out there, but it is important to recruit great people,” Henry said. Brian Wills • THE BATTALION New track and field coach Pat Henry speaks at a press conference on Tuesday at the Anderson Track Com plex. Henry won 27 national championships while serving as head coach for Louisiana State University. Henry said many changes will be made within the program and though some may seem signifi cantly different, they will all be beneficial. “The only way to change where you are is to be different,” Henry said. “You can’t be afraid to make that jump.” HsnHRirnn ange.f skeplic r Tippssi 3n ini ;ingwilii latwillirl loore named issistant coach Men’s head tennis coach Tim Cass announced Monday that Steve Moore will be filling the assistant coach vacancy left by Shuon Madden. Moore is an ac count manager for Plastipak Pack aging, one of the nation's largest beverage bottlers, and he comes to A&M from Southern Methodist University, where he was women's head tennis coach. During his two years at SMU, he led his team to a 13-3 WAC record. Moore has 10 years of experi ence coaching tennis and five years of head coaching experi ence. Moore was the head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 1998, the inaugural season of the program. During his time there, his team earned a 45-17 record. Moore has a combined career record of 80-40. Moore was also assistant coach at Texas Tech Uni versity from 1995-98. Former assistant coach Shuon Madden departed from the team to pursue a career in the profes sional tennis tour. Moore graduated from Abilene Christian University in 1993 and was nationally ranked as well as serving as the team captain: Cook ousted from tournament Aggie three-time All-American tennis player Lester Cook fell in the first round of the Mercedes- Benz Cup, an ATP Tour Event, Monday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Cook earned the wild card bid into the tournament after win ning the tiebreaker tournament, the All-American Shootout over the weekend. ATP tournament play is the highest of three tiers in profes sional tennis. Cook participated in both events as an amateur. In the round of 32, Cook faced former NCAA singles champion Jeff Morrison, who is ranked No. 116 in the world, and lost 6-2, 6-2. Cook ended his junior season with wins in 19 of his final 22 matches. In the last three months of the season, he rose from No. 27 to No. 8 in the singles rankings, a career best. Cook was also named one of six men's players for the 2004 USA Tennis Collegiate Team, which is administered by the United States Tennis Association and the Inter collegiate Tennis Association. Cook’s selection to the USA Ten nis Collegiate Team was his second such honor in the last two months.