• Slug: Sports-ASU Tennis, 805 words.
• Photos included

By LOGAN NEWMAN
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Arizona State tennis coach Matt Hill’s efforts to reinstate the men’s program didn’t begin with recruits. It didn’t start with scheduling matches.

First, he needed to buy tennis balls.

“Instead of 20 pieces of the puzzle not being put in place, you’ve got every single piece of the puzzle is not connected,” Hill said.

The ASU men’s tennis team was dropped in 2008 due to budget cuts. Last May, the athletic department announced it had raised enough money to reinstate the program. Hill was persuaded to join based on what he called the “unique vision” of Ray Anderson, vice president for university athletes and athletics director at ASU. Anderson sold Hill on a plan for the program that includes more community and alumni involvement.

“It was impossible not to be excited,” Hill said.

When he was hired in June, the foundation of ASU’s tennis culture was in place. However, the team was not. After running over to All About Tennis, a tennis shop in Scottsdale, to get the basic equipment, Hill began to piece together the his team by using an advantage he didn’t have at his prior school of employment.

He now is coaching a team in a Power Five conference.

In 2012, Hill was named tennis coach of a University of South Florida team that had gone 9-12 the prior year and had only made two NCAA Tournament appearances since 2005-06. The Bulls went 12-10 in his first season before leaping to a 19-7 record and NCAA appearance in year two.

Over the next two years, Hill’s teams posted a pair of 21-win seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances.

So why did walk away from a South Florida program that had all of the puzzle pieces in place? It was two recruiting challenges in particular.

In 2015, the Power Five conferences voted to allow up to $5,000 for scholarship assistance for students to use for needs such as groceries, cellphone bills and other out-of-pocket expenses.

South Florida, as a member of the American Athletic Conference, did not get this benefit.

“It’s just a little scary for a tennis coach being in a school that’s not in a Power Five conference because of all the money and the budgets that are changing,” he said.

He also grew irked with South Florida’s academic standards, which he said were stringent and that the athletic department wasn’t able to pull strings that some Power Five schools could. The USF athletic department didn’t have much leverage with the administration, which was trying to get extra Federal funding from the government by improving the school’s academics.

“When you got a guy on campus that’s 20th in the world and you can’t get him into school, and schools that are top-25 academically can get him in, it’s frustrating,” Hill said.

He began listening to job offers and was in serious talks with Auburn before Arizona State came to him.

“Being able to help (Anderson) rebuild something that kind of, in a sense, got taken away from the alumni and the community, it had a very strong appeal for me,” Hill said. “It wasn’t solely about being successful at college tennis.”

He turned a low-level USF school into a contender. Now, he’ll get a shot at creating a team from the ground up at ASU.

Recruiting isn’t easy.

“You make a phone call to ask a guy if he wants to come, he asks who’s on the team and you have to say,  ‘no one,’ ” Hill said with a laugh. “That was the one difference that was quite challenging.”

His first signee, however, wasn’t a challenge. Freshman Benjamin Hannestad said he committed to play under Hill when he was 15, and his brother played at USF when Hill coached there.

Then, the coach announced he was leaving Tampa.

“Obviously I was very sad, I didn’t know what to do the first day, but the only thing I could think of was to go with him,” Hannestad said.

Tom Wright, another incoming freshman at USF, did the same. This gave Hill some leverage with other recruits. Once the program had a base, he said it was actually easier to recruit at ASU than it had been at USF.

Freshman William Kirkman was receiving calls from schools around the country when ASU contacted him about playing in Tempe.

“This was different because it was a brand new program,” Kirkman said. “It’s really awesome to be a part of this trailblazing project.”

ASU women’s coach Sheila McInerney spoke highly of Hill’s recruiting ability, saying he “takes pride in it.” She’s been in charge of the women’s program at ASU for 33 years and helped Hill get acclimated to his new home.

She thinks he’s ready to go. He even has plenty of tennis balls.

“I don’t think he needs any advice, but I think he’s already embraced the ASU tennis community,” McInerney said. “Just keep working hard and enjoy the journey, enjoy the process.”