Dominic Modise was hired May 31 as the new coach for the women’s and revived men’s tennis team. For the past two years Modise was on staff at University of New Orleans where he helped the Privateers tennis team earn a top 75 ranking. Prior to that, Modise was also an assistant coach at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Modise said he has big plans for the two Nicholls teams, including putting them back into competition and making the tennis program a winner. According to Modise, he also wants the team to excel in athletics but he wants them to excel in academics.

When asked how he was going to handle coaching both the women and men’s team, Modise said, ” They are different people, and you have to deal with them differently. It will be challenging, and I will have to make time for both teams.” Modise will also have an assistant coach who has yet to be named.

“You have to have a plan; everything is going to take time,” Modise said. Modise said he wants the community to be a part of Nicholls’ tennis program, and he wants to introduce tennis to Thibodaux by having tennis clinics for children and by getting the students and community to participate in matches.

According to Bernardi, Modise stood out amongst the six other candidates for the coaching position because of his prior experience as a coach at ULL and at UNO and his international connections which will help in the recruiting process to identify talented players in other countries.

Modise said he is now in the process of recruiting for the men’s tennis team, and he hopes to recruit six to eight men this year. There are currently no members signed to the men’s team.

This will not be the first time the University will have a men’s tennis program. In the late 1970s men’s tennis was very competitive. Bernardi said, in 1979 Nicholls’ men’s tennis were ranked second in the nation. However, the men’s program was stopped in the early 1980s because of budget problems.

“Its been 20 years since we’ve had a men’s tennis team, and it will take a little while to get everything going,” Bernardi said. “I have great confidence in Modise.”

The tennis season starts in the fall of 2004 where the teams will play against non-conference schools and the conference season will start in February 2005.