Former USC coach Leach to guide Breakers

Richard Dunn

Dick Leach, the legendary former USC men’s tennis coach, has been

named coach of the Newport Beach Breakers for the inaugural World

Team Tennis season in 2003.

Leach, who coached the Trojans for 23 years and guided them to

four national championships before retiring in May 2002, said he has

missed coaching and is “really excited” about the opportunity to

coach the Breakers, for whom his future daughter-in-law, three-time

Grand Slam winner Lindsay Davenport, will play at least two home

matches for during the July campaign.

“I really miss coaching at USC, but the drive was taking its toll

on me,” said Leach, who lives in Laguna Beach. “This way, I just go

up Pacific Coast Highway and I’ll get to do a little more

(coaching).”

Leach, a member at Palisades Tennis Club, where the Breakers will

play their seven home matches, said he loves the WTT format of men’s

and women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles in eight-game pro

sets.

“It’s a quick, snappy format with four or five players from each

team playing. It’s exciting. There’s no rest,” Leach said.

Leach’s oldest son, Rick, is a longtime doubles standout on the

Association of Tennis Professionals Tour and plays World Team Tennis

for the Kansas City Explorers. His son, Jon, played briefly on the

tour after an All-American career at USC and will marry Davenport on

April 24.

Newport Beach’s Robert Van’t Hof, a longtime former WTT player and

coach for the Sacramento Capitals and Davenport’s former coach, was

believed to be the league’s top candidate to coach the Breakers, but

Van’t Hof reportedly wanted to spend more time with his son, Kaes,

this summer while he competes on the junior circuit. A Mater Dei High

star, Kaes Van’t Hof is ranked 24th in the nation in the boys 16s.

“He decided to decline doing it,” Dick Leach said of Robert Van’t

Hof. “Maybe I was the second choice. That’s OK. I think I was the

second choice at USC in 1980 back with Dennis Ralston, who ended up

lasting only (five) years at SMU and I lasted 23 years (at USC).”

One year, Leach traveled the WTT circuit to follow his sons who

were playing for the Idaho Sneakers under Coach Greg Patton, the

former Newport Beach Dukes and UC Irvine men’s tennis coach.

Leach currently acts as emeritus director of men’s tennis at USC,

where he retired after 535 career victories, an unprecedented .797

winning percentage, two NCAA singles champions (Van’t Hof being his

first), three NCAA doubles champions (including the 1987 crown by

Rick Leach and Scott Melville) and seven Pac-10 titles.

Before the WTT season, Leach will be highly celebrated on two

occasions, when he’s inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame May

3 and Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches’ Association Hall of Fame May 23

in Athens, Ga., site of the NCAA tournament.

Leach, who compiled a 93-19 record at Arcadia High from 1965

through ‘69, has been involved as a teaching pro, general partner and

owner of several tennis clubs, including Big Bear Tennis Ranch, Ojai

Valley Racquet Club, Westlake Tennis and Swim Club and the Racquet

Club of Irvine.

In addition to Davenport, the Breakers will feature Brian MacPhie,

Maria Sharapova, Josh Eagle and Eva Dyrberg.

World Team Tennis, entering its 23rd season, runs July 7-27 with

the top teams from each conference (Eastern and Western) advancing to

the season-ending championship.