With tennis in his blood and the desire to gain and spread knowledge, Idaho women’s tennis coach Daniel Pollock made a decision after high school in Manchester, England to move to the United States and pursue professional tennis and a college education.
Pollock said his mom played high school tennis and said he played tennis from as early as he can remember. He said at about 12, he started playing in tournaments in the UK. He said his game advanced during high school.
“I was lucky to have a good high school that had good tennis facilities and we had a couple of high level tennis players that played there,” Pollock said. “Also you compete a lot more as an individual than you do as a team in the UK so I traveled all over the country and a little bit around Europe to play.”
After high school, Pollock said he had two options — play professionally or go to a university. He said he wanted to do both and knew that in the United States the opportunity to train at a high level while attending a university and keeping up with academics is possible.
Pollock said he knew that was the best option so he made the move — first to South Carolina and later to Hawaii to play college tennis. At Anderson College, Pollock helped lead the team to a No. 14 national ranking in NCAA Division II and at Hawaii-Hilo, he helped the team to Pacific West Conference regular season and tournament runner-up.
During college, Pollock found his desire to become a college tennis coach.
“I had an awesome college experience and had a really great coach who really believed in not only giving his athletes the best chance to win and making them the best players they can be, but also ensuring that one, they graduate from the university that they go to and two, that they get to see a lot of the U.S. while they travel,” Pollock said.
He said his coach made sure the guys played hard and had an “awesome” college experience.
“I think seeing what he did for everybody kind of inspired me to want to do the same thing and give other people that same opportunity to enjoy their experience in college and playing for a team as opposed to playing for themselves,” Pollock said. “And that kind of pushed me into college coaching as opposed to any other type of coaching.”
Pollock began as an assistant men’s tennis coach at the University of Chicago-Illinois from 2007 to 2009, where he also earned a master’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in applied exercise physiology. Next he became the assistant men’s and women’s tennis coach at UH-Hilo where he was named the ITA Division II Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year.
Idaho Director of Tennis Jeff Beaman hired Pollock as assistant coach for the men’s team in 2010 and in his first season as assistant coach, Pollock helped the men to a 19-8 record and the programs highest national ranking at No. 46.
In 2011, Pollock took over as the women’s coach. He said he appreciates everything Beaman has done for him as well as everything he has learned and continues to learn.
“I think he definitely has an amazing recruiting base, he has taught me a lot about recruiting while I have been here and he just has kind of taken me under his wing and guided me through as an assistant and into head coach,” Pollock said.
He said Beaman still helps him on and off the court, including when Pollock is overwhelmed with school as he works toward a doctorate in sports science.
“I’m always welcome over at his house anytime I want to be there, and him and his wife have just been awesome to me since I have been here,” Pollock said.
He said the sports staff at Idaho has been like a huge family to him and that he loves the university spirit here. Pollock also said he has thoroughly enjoyed this year’s team.
“I have a philosophy of coaching that they have just totally bought into and it’s on the court and off-court,” Pollock said. “They work their butts off on the court, they work hard off the court and they play great with each other, and I couldn’t be happier with them right now.”
The team also thinks highly of its first-year coach. Senior Molly Knox played for Idaho before Pollock became coach and said she appreciates what Pollock has done with the team.
“I really enjoy having Dan as a coach mainly just for me coming in as a senior, it’s really different to have a coach who still wants to work with your game so much and he has done that with everyone,” Knox said. “He hasn’t given up, he wants to make us all better and I think he has done a great job finding aspects of our game to improve on to make us better players.”
She said Pollock is a lot calmer on the court than previous coaches and that it is a lot easier to have him on the court. She said players know Pollock wants them to try their hardest. Knox said the team doesn’t mind that practices have been longer and more frequent, because it prepared the team for the spring season.
Sophomore Sophie Vickers said Pollock has been supportive of her since she arrived last season and that the whole team has a lot of respect for him.
“He works us hard and sets goals for us and he wants us to do well and I think that pays off in all the hard work he puts in and he also makes it a fun environment,” Vickers said.
Vickers and Knox said it is evident Pollock was a great player growing up, but they can rarely get more than a few minutes of playing out of him these days.
“I love hitting with Dan but usually after about 10 minutes, he is grabbing his hip and hobbling around saying how old he is and it’s hilarious because he is not that old yet, but he likes saying he is an old man so if I’m team grandma, he is like team great, great, great, great-grandpa,” Knox said.
Vickers said she definitely would not say she could beat Pollock in a full match but agreed with Knox about always hearing about Pollock’s injuries.
Pollock said he can’t set win-loss goals, but he wants the best for this team.
“We want to be as successful as we can and compete for a conference championship at some point here in the near future but just to take this group of athletes and see them succeed and be as good as they can be, that would be my overall ultimate goal always,” Pollock said.
Pollock and the Vandals are off to a decent 5-3 start this season with two 7-0 wins and two 6-1 wins. Pollock said he loves coaching but could also see himself teaching in a classroom someday.
“For me, I love to learn, so especially doing a doctorate in sports science, I get to apply everything that I do to my team and to my job,” Pollock said. “I think teaching in the classroom I enjoy almost as much as teaching on the court.”
Charles Crowley can be reached at [email protected].