Even though women’s tennis head coach Hugh Bream is retiring after 11 years as coach, he said it’s to reorganize his priorities.
“Our daughter is local, and we just got a beautiful new granddaughter, so I just want to slice up the pie a little differently,” Bream said.
Although he is stepping down from a head coaching role, he hopes to remain a volunteer assistant to the program he built into a main player in a power conference, he said.
In his down time, Bream will look to spend more time with his expanding family and hit the waves in Morro Bay to surf when he can.
“(Surfing) has always been something that, when you’re doing it, your mind just can turn off everything else,” Bream said. “You stop worrying about the next opponent or a loss or a ranking and you just enjoy it. I always feel that I get out of the water completely refreshed and ready for whatever challenges come up.”
But the final chapter has yet to be written in Bream’s Cal Poly career, which began when he was a student in San Luis Obispo and graduated in 1980. The women’s team has earned a No. 2 seed in the Big West tournament this week and will vie for one of the 64 spots in the NCAA Tournament.
Led by a young squad headed by sophomore Alexa Lee, the Mustangs are looking to knock off Cal State Fullerton in an effort to beat conference champion Long Beach State.
What happens on the court is more secondary to Bream, though. He focuses on a character-driven approach to help better his athletes on and off the court.
“You just hope some of the life skills they learned from being on a team and evolving into being a team leader and combining that with working to do their best academically, and that the character they get from being tested in competitive athletics contributes to them having great lives after college,” Bream said.
Looking at recent graduates, Bream appears to have succeeded in his goal. He helped send a past athlete to Harvard Business School, another to dental school and brought Suzie Matzenauer, a player on the team last year, onto his coaching staff in 2011.
“I’m so lucky and privileged to have played for him for two years,” Matzenauer said. “But this year has been the most rewarding year I’ve ever had. I’ve been watching the way he coaches, his philosophy and the way he communicates with his players.”
The philosophy known as ACE (attitude, concentration, effort), is what Bream places much of the credit on for the success of his athletes.
ACE was developed with Cal Poly’s sports psychologist Jeff Troesch, the three factors are the only things players can control on a daily basis. All else is superfluous to performing at one’s best on the court.
Every day, Bream said, each team member evaluates how they did, along with how their actions helped or hurt the team in those three areas and records it on a white board.
That emphasis and dedication will leave a legacy on Cal Poly’s program as it has even inspired Matzenauer to continue to pursuing a career in coaching.
“It’s been so rewarding to work with the girls and see how we tailor their life so it’s not just about tennis, but by being their mentor as they grow up through their first couple years of college,” Matzenauer said.
Currently the search is underway for a new coach for the 2012 season, and Bream said there will be a plethora of qualified candidates due to the success of the program; sorting through the field will be the most difficult part.
Though no matter who athletics director Don Oberhelman chooses in the end, Bream will give the same advice to the person coming in the door.
“I’d say (to the new coach), make sure these athletes are doing well as people first and give them great support,” Bream said. “Make sure they’re doing well academically, and their athletic ability and motivation will take care of the rest on the tennis court.”