Lessons From A Legend - Dick Gould

Coach Dick Gould is truly a college tennis coaching legend. As the head men’s tennis coach at Stanford for 38 years his teams won 17 NCAA team championships and he holds a record of 776 wins and 148 losses. He has coached 10 NCAA singles champions, 7 NCAA doubles champions, 50 All-Americans, and nine players who reached the top 15 in the ATP world singles rankings.

 

In this podcast Coach Gould discusses recruiting, fundraising, time management and many other lessons he learned along the way. His fundraising efforts match his winning percentage on the court. He never took the future of the Stanford program for granted. As you will learn through this conversation he worked tirelessly to endow every aspect of Stanford tennis so that future Stanford coaches would never have to worry about the sustainability of the programs. 

 

Key parts of this conversation have been marked for your listening convenience:

• 02:02 - How did you go about recruiting the top tennis players in the country and the world - and convince them that Stanford was viable for their talents?
• 13:48 - What are some of the recruiting traits you used that are ageless and could apply to coaches today?
• 17:46 - When you speak with recruits and they ask "where am I going to play" - how did you answer that question?
• 23:10 - What are some of the key lessons that you learned along the way?
• 24:49 - What player or team taught you the most as a coach?
• 28:43 - Is there a mistake that you made with a player that really stands out to you?
• 31:17 - Are there any time management strategies that were effective for you that would benefit other coaches?
• 37:09 - Do you believe that college tennis has "lost its way" in recent years?
• 44:30 - What should college coaches be doing right now?
• 45:30 - What advice do you have for coaches about fundraising?
• 47:42 - What is the most common questions asked of you by coaches?