August 2007 -- A couple of years ago, members of the Georgia Tech women’s tennis team indulged in a little wishful thinking for the team poster they shoot each fall - mainly for themselves.
They staged a photo with the captain standing in the middle of the court while her teammates ran toward her, thrusting their fists in the air and yelling ecstatically, as if they had won the national championship.
Somehow that make-believe moment turned into a dream-come-true when Georgia Tech pulled off a 4-2 victory over the University of California at Los Angeles in the NCAA championship match this May in Athens, Ga.
"I guess we didn’t do a very good job with the poster picture," said Bryan Shelton, head women’s tennis coach at Georgia Tech.
Only the real thing - the photo snapped in the emotional, kinetic moment when the team’s No. 2 singles player clinched the championship - could truly capture the feeling, he explained.
This USPTA Pro 1 has helped transform a struggling squad into the Cinderella team of collegiate tennis - season by gutsy season - over the past eight years. The team won its 21st straight match to finish the past season at 29-4.
Within a few weeks of their big win, the young women flew to Washington, D.C., to meet the president of the United States and hear a band strike up the "Ramblin’ Wreck" fight song on the White House lawn.
"People think we’re still riding high from the national title," Shelton said in late July. "It’s a great feeling, but we’re back down to earth and seeing all the things we can improve. We’re putting our focus into development of players even through the summer months.
"If we continue to work hard and get better we’ll have another opportunity to win a national championship. It comes from concentrating on the right things.
"I’m busy recruiting for 2008," Shelton said. He was on a recruiting trip in Memphis, Tenn., during the Girls 18s National Clay Courts, when he took time for a phone interview.
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association named Shelton the Wilson/ITA National Coach of the Year the same day his team won the national championship.
"I don’t live and work for that type of recognition, but it’s nice," he said. "It’s nice to be recognized by your peers as somebody who stands for something, has done a good job, done things the right way." For example, "We’ve really tried to do it primarily with American players; we could have gone the international route.
"It also means having players who are willing to put in the time and effort it takes to get better," Shelton pointed out. "There are so many things involved in trying to develop a complete player. Footwork, stroke production and learning how to compete are obviously huge components.
"We really put our focus on the intangibles the last six weeks of the season - the attitude, mental toughness, perseverance, the team unity - and that turned out to be very profitable to us.
"We have had so many supporters through our run," Shelton said. "It meant the world to us, gave us the energy to get out there and put it all out on the line, to play fearless," he said.
Shelton said the team effort has involved not only the coach and players, but staff, trainers, academic advisers, professors alumni and parents. He also credits his own family and USPTA Master Professional Bill Tym, who is his former coach and still a mentor and good friend.
Shelton, who grew up in Huntsville, Ala., said his life changed at the age of 13, when Tym moved to town and became his coach. "I thought I knew what hard work was - I didn’t have a clue," the younger teaching pro joked. "He quickly showed me."
Shelton said he gained "a wealth of information, knowlege and support" from his coach, and that is the type of relationship he wants to have with his own players.
"There is a small level of fear," Coach Shelton said with a laugh, "fear of disappointing, of me getting on them. I’m not afraid to push. But there’s a much bigger level of respect, and an even bigger level of love, like a father and his children. From tears, to jubilation, we have experienced all those things, having gone through so much together."
In other words, "These players are my extended family," the father of two young children said.
The 41-year-old Shelton (whose bio can be found on Wikipedia), played for Georgia Tech from 1985 to 1988, earning all-American honors his senior year and induction into the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame in 1993.
He played professionally from 1989 to 1997, winning four ATP tour titles and ranking as high as No. 55 in the world in singles (1994) and 52 in doubles.
"I had wins over some top-10 players, but honestly, nothing compared to our winning the title this year," Shelton said.
After retiring from the tour, he coached MaliVai Washington, then served as a USTA national coach from 1998 to 1999.
"I had just left the USTA. My job was a great position, but it wasn’t a perfect fit for me after coming off the circuit," Shelton said. "Back in Atlanta, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next, when Kenny Thorne called." Thorne, his former Georgia Tech teammate and doubles partner, is head men’s tennis coach at their alma mater.
"He said the position is open for women’s tennis, would you be interested in coming in and interviewing? I said yeah, absolutely. A couple of weeks later it was a done deal.
"After the first year I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a long-term relationship; I wasn’t sure this was the place I was meant to be," he allowed.
Shelton and his players clearly had their work cut out for them. When he signed on, the Yellow Jackets had yet to appear in an NCAA tournament and had yet to finish higher than fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
In his first season as coach, his team went to the second round of the NCAA tournament. And that was only the beginning. His teams have made seven NCAA appearances over a span of seven years, captured two Atlantic Coast Conference championships, and have had some of the nation’s top-ranked players.
"I thought honestly that we could end up a top-10 program with a lot of hard work and bringing the right people in," Shelton said. "It took five years to get into the top 10, and then from there we started setting our sights and goals a little higher. For the last year our goal was to win a national championship. We had been knocking at the door the last couple of years.
"It’s been a lot of fun, but you’ve got to enjoy the process," Shelton said. "If you’re only interested in the goal, once you accomplish that, where do you go from there? It’s all about buying into the process, enjoying putting it on the line every single day."
