Q&A: Men's Tennis Head Coach Ryan Sachire
Notre Dame men's tennis head coach Ryan Sachire was a three-time All-American singles player at Notre Dame before graduating in 2000. He returned to the program as an assistant coach in 2006, and served in that role before becoming head coach in July 2013.
His title is now the Callaghan Family Head Men’s Tennis Coach after a $3 million endowment from John and Kilm Callaghan was announced this May.
The Irish were ranked No. 40 nationally in the May 5 Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis rankings and finished 15-14 overall this season. They fell 4-1 to Stanford in a close, competitive match in the first round of the NCAA tournament May 14.
Individually, Notre Dame will still have Quentin Monaghan in-action in NCAA singles play - he advanced to the national semifinals last year - while Monaghan and senior Alex Lawson will team up for NCAA doubles.
Below is a Q&A catching up with Sachire on the program, recruiting and more.
Blue & Gold Illustrated: What is your average day like?
Sachire: “Obviously there’s some variance day-to-day. Typically we have guys come in for the morning for individual work. I’ll get in the office at 8 a.m., or a bit before, with my assistants.
"We put a premium in our program on individual development as much as we can. Obviously college tennis is a team sport, but it’s also 1-on-1 battles when you’re out there in a dual match. So we try to emphasize the individual needs of each player – what our No. 1 guy needs is different than what our No. 2 guy needs.
"We’ll try to tackle a lot of those individual things in the morning if we can. They’ll come in before class or whenever we can work it in with their schedule. And then in the afternoon we’ll have a team practice. Filling in the cracks is a lot of recruiting and what I call “program management”, like contacting the alumni association and people in the cities we travel to.
"It’s amazing how your day fills up, especially at a school like this with that kind of program development. Recruiting in our sport is nuts, because tennis tournaments are 12 months a year, so is recruiting. We don’t have much of a recruiting calendar, so there’s always the opportunity – and so sometimes, always the pressure. The day-to-day management of recruiting takes a lot of our time.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: How much has Quentin Monaghan meant to the program during your tenure?
Sachire: “Quentin Monaghan is a stud. He’s a superstar. He’s meant so much to our culture first and foremost. I’ve never coached – and I don’t know if Notre Dame has ever had a harder worker than Quentin.
"He has an insatiable appetite to improve and to get better. One of the most competitive kids I’ve ever coached. If it’s not where he wants it to be in terms of his game, then he’s going to be out working constantly. He probably comes in for three to four individual sessions a week and then is the hardest worker at our team practices.
"What that effect has been on our program is our other guys have seen the success he’s had, and they associate that with his work ethic, and that filters down to the other guys.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: Who wins in a dual match – you in your college prime or Quentin?
Sachire: *Laughs*. “He’s still on our team, so I’ll say that he would beat me. No, look, the thing that’s great about playing at that level – and Quentin’s been there for the last couple of years – is you’re in a pretty elite league. It’s a day-to-day thing as far as who can beat who. It’s such a fine line between when you’re playing your best and when you’re not, and if you’re not you can be beat.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: Did your experience playing at Notre Dame help you as a coach here?
Sachire: “First, I understand the demands from an academic and social perspective. I know what it’s like to live the life of a tennis student-athlete here at Notre Dame. My goals were extremely high as a player; I wanted to develop into a pro, and certainly be the best college player I could be and help Notre Dame as much as I could. But I also understand because of my experience that the academic load is very difficult.
"So being able to know what our guys are going through from a first-hand perspective, realizing that there are maybe going to be some days where their focus isn’t entirely where it needs to be on the tennis court because they’ve got other things going on has been helpful.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: Did you always dream of getting into coaching, or did it just sort of work out that you ended up head coach here?
Sachire: “Both of my parents were high school teachers. My dad was a football and tennis coach. I’m from Youngstown, Ohio, originally, and they’re very passionate about athletics there.
"So sports, education, the concept of being a coach has always been a massive part of my life. I knew when I was in college that it would continue to be, but I didn’t know what role that’d consist of. I didn’t know I would be the head coach here.
"Once I went through my playing career in college, I knew being a college coach was what I wanted to do. You can never count on being the head coach at a place like Notre Dame, but it was definitely a goal and something I always aspired to.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: When you evaluate your program right now, where do you see it at, and what’s the next step?
Sachire: “Three years ago when my staff and I took over, we were the hallmark of consistency. We’d made the NCAA tournament something like 19 of 20 years. Always relatively good finishing nationally, but what I felt was missing since the early 90’s was dynamic performances, like deep NCAA tournament runs or significant national level wins and individual performances.
"I think we’ve built on that. We’ve maintained the consistency of play and results throughout the three years, but we’ve added to it – our win this year over No. 1 North Carolina, two years ago we were ranked as high as No. 6 in the country, went 5-0 against SEC teams.
"Last year Quentin Monaghan made the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, this year him and Alex Lawson making the national indoor semifinals in doubles. Where we’ve got to get to is where that becomes commonplace.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: What are some of the aspects that make Notre Dame a great option for tennis prospects?
Sachire: “What we sell the most is the question ‘Is Notre Dame No. 1?’ The ability to be here and all that comes with it, from the academics and team dynamic – we play an amazing schedule with our location and the ACC – all those things go into Notre Dame.
"So we talk to recruits about what their goal is individually, and to try to get them to see that this is a place where they can maximize that potential in everything they do. It’s a team-first mentality, but we try to promote the individual development angle too. A lot of our guys ultimately do want to play pro tennis, and they see this is a pathway with a four-year career there.
"You receive a great education, you play for a team that plays for championships in a great conference, but at the same time we’re going to give them the tools to be successful in the pro’s.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: The $3 million endowment from the Callaghan’s, in what ways does that help the program?
Sachire: “It’s huge. I think it’s a reflection on the Callaghan family. Great people. Patrick played here and graduated in 2010, just an amazing kid and family. It’s an incredible gift for us.
"It adds stability. You look around the country and some men’s tennis programs are facing budget cuts. A lot of the mid-majors are getting cut. What this does is it gives great stability to our program moving forward. It shows Notre Dame’s strong commitment to tennis and developing a championship team here.”
Blue & Gold Illustrated: What do you want your student-athletes to learn most from their time with you at Notre Dame?
Sachire: “We try to instill in our guys a commitment to the process. Which then translates to success in every avenue of life after leaving here. Tennis is a 365 day a year sport; every coach would tell you that, but the technical nature of our sport, it really is.
"Guys are competing and training 12 months a year. It takes a lifestyle to be successful in our sport, and that translates into life in general, like being a father, being a person in the working world. There’s a daily attention that your craft, whatever it is, requires to be successful. If we teach them that, then we’ve done our job.”