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.”
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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.