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.
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