Women's tennis head coach Tim Gray is in his fourth year at Auburn.
The Greenville, S.C., native has been playing for most of his life and coaching since the late 80s.
"I've been playing tennis since I was about 10 years old," Gray said.
Gray played two years of collegiate tennis at Washington College in Chestertown, Md.
His senior season, he competed in the Division III national championships in singles and doubles.
He said he began coaching in 1986.
"My first college coaching job was at Widener University in Pennsylvania," Gray said.
He has been coaching at different colleges and universities around the country for 23 years.
Gray has coached at Widener, Washington College, Eastern Michigan University, Florida Southern College and now Auburn.
He said coaching tennis is different from coaching other sports.
"The hardest thing about coaching collegiate tennis is that there are six balls in play at one time," Gray said. "In tennis, there are six matches taking place at one time."
Gray said it is difficult to manage all six matches at once.
"It's hard to be in six different places and managing momentum becomes quite a challenge," Gray said.
Gray took over a team that posted a 6-15 record during the 2004 season.
In his three years since coming to the Plains, the Tigers have won a share of the SEC West title, have advanced to the NCAA tournament, have reached an ITA team ranking of No. 27 in the nation and a 15-10 record in 2007-2008.
He has also coached Auburn's first ever women's tennis All-American.
Senior Fani Chifchieva earned All-American honors in 2007 and was ranked as the No. 16 player in the nation.
Gray said that Auburn's rich athletic tradition brought him to coach here.
He said he likes "coaching in the SEC at a great institution like Auburn."
Auburn has four seniors on this year's squad along with three freshmen.
Gray said the team will miss its seniors from last year, but is excited for the new talent this year.
"We graduated some very good players last year in Alex Haney and Whitney Chappell," Gray said. "They provided a lot of wins."
He said experience will be the team's biggest need this year.
"We've brought in some talented players," Gray said. "We're young, but I think we're hungry.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
