Mark Guilbeau Position: Head Coach Years at Virginia: 2nd Season

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A new era of the Virginia women's tennis program began last summer when Mark Guilbeau was named the program's head coach. Guilbeau, the 2005 ITA National Coach of the Year, comes to Charlottesville from Kentucky, where he built the Wildcat program into one of the nation's elite.

"I am very grateful to Craig Littlepage, Jane Miller, and the entire UVa administration for this opportunity," said Guilbeau. "I have been impressed from day one with the organization, work-ethic, and overall mission of this athletics administration and all of the UVa coaches. To be surrounded by so many hard-working, motivated people is very inspiring. We have a great staff at UVa and I am very fortunate to have such great help from our admistrative assistant, trainers, strength coaches, assistant coach, all the way through to support from admissions, President Casteen, and Mr. Littlepage."

Over the past decade, Guilbeau has established himself as one the country's top collegiate tennis coaches. All nine of his teams at Kentucky made the NCAA Tournament, including reaching at least the round of 16 in each of the past four seasons. He took over the Wildcat program in 1997 that was coming off two straight losing seasons and consecutive tenth place finishes in the Southeastern Conference, and took the program to new heights over the next nine years. His Kentucky teams went 152-89, as he coached nine All-Americans, 11 All-SEC honorees, ten NCAA Singles and eight NCAA Doubles participants.

Last season, Guilbeau led Kentucky to the best season in school history. The Wildcats had a 26-6 record, setting a school record for wins in a season, were ranked a record No. 2 nationally, reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, and the reached the finals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. Kentucky won its first SEC regular season title as Guilbeau was named ITA National and Southeast Region Coach of the Year in addition to SEC Coach of the Year accolades.

In each of the past four seasons, Guilbeau's Kentucky teams have won an NCAA regional and finished the season ranked in the top 16 nationally. In 2004, he took a team of eight newcomers, including seven freshmen to the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual National Champion Stanford. Also, Aibika Kalsarieva became the first UK player to reach the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship that season. The 2003 team went 23-8 and finished second in the SEC as Guilbeau earned SEC Coach of the Year honors. That season, the UK duo of Amy Trefethen and Sarah Witten became the first doubles team in school history to reach the NCAA Doubles Championship Final. In 2002, the Wildcats won a NCAA Regional for the first time school history and had a doubles team reach the NCAA Doubles semifinals.

It took little time for Guilbeau to make his mark at Kentucky. In just his third season in Lexington in 1999, he led the program to a No. 18 national ranking and a fourth-place finish in the SEC, the team's highest finish in five years. From that point, Guilbeau had established Kentucky as a perennial top 25 team and one of the top teams in the SEC.

"I was very fortunate to begin my head coaching career at Kentucky and in the SEC," said Guilbeau. "It was an extremely challenging process, especially with the commitment and accountability that was placed on bringing the program to the elite level in collegiate tennis. Along with many great team and individual accomplishments, I am very proud to say that every goal established for our program at Kentucky was met. There were many challenges - all of which were approached with the greatest desire, thought, intensity and work ethic. None of the accomplishments would have been possible without the support of many wonderful people in Lexington; a great athletic administration; several very strong and commited assistant coaches; and most importantly, so many outstanding players and dedicated young ladies. The energy that was produced from working with such driven groups of players made it a pleasure to be a coach at Kentucky."

Prior to taking over the program at Kentucky, Guilbeau found success as an assistant coach at Georgia for five seasons. While in Athens, the Bulldogs won the 1994 NCAA Championship, the 1994 and 1995 ITA National Team Indoor Championships, and finished ranked in the top five nationally each season. He helped coach eight All-Americans, four national tournament doubles champions and one NCAA singles champion during his time at Georgia. While at Georgia, he was also the Head Tennis Professional at Jennings Mill Country Club in Athens.

"The years I spent in Athens were very valuable to me as a coach and a teacher," said Guilbeau. "The experience I gained at Georgia has helped me greatly in my coaching role. The people at Georgia and Jennings Mill Country Club were extremely kind and supportive. I am very fortunate to have had such a great opportunity."

Guilbeau feels day-to-day instruction and workouts are a very inspiring and rewarding part of the job. While he believes strongly in spending time improving each player's weak areas, at least 50 percent of court time is spent focusing on strengths and weapons, while additional time is devoted to physical conditioning and strength development.

"An emphasis I have for each athlete is that she will develop a confident style of play centered around her individual strengths, and that she will reach the highest fitness level of her life," Guilbeau said. The idea of giving 100 percent every day is the heart of Guilbeau's coaching philosophy. He firmly believes both progress and enjoyment come from that type of work ethic.

"Success must be earned...it does not come from luck," Guilbeau said. "You have to work hard and take care of all the details."

Not only does Guilbeau demand a great deal from his team; he demands a lot of himself as well.

"If the players know that you have their best interests in mind and you are willing to do whatever it takes to help them achieve their goal," Guilbeau said, "you will find that they will work very hard for the coaching staff and the team."

In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Guilbeau has attended the 1992 Australian Open as a coach and worked with players on the USTA Satellite and WTA Tours.

A native of Lafayette, La., Guilbeau played collegiate tennis at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala. He finished his undergraduate degree at Southwestern Louisiana in 1988. He served as a graduate teaching instructor at Southwestern Louisiana and at Georgia before receiving his master's degree in Health Promotion and Behavior from Georgia in 1992.

Guilbeau has run 10 marathons and has a personal best of 2:40:00. Most recently, Guilbeau completed the 2004 Boston Marathon. He also helped raise more than $50,000 for the American Cancer Society by playing a doubles tennis marathon in 1991. Along with three others, Guilbeau set a Guinness Book World Record by playing doubles for 125 consecutive hours.

Year	School	Record	Conf. Finish	Postseason
96-97	Kentucky	12-13	10th	NCAA 1st Rd.
97-98	Kentucky	15-9	8th	NCAA 2nd Rd.
98-99	Kentucky	15-10	T-4th	NCAA 2nd Rd.
99-00	Kentucky	12-11	T-8th	NCAA 1st Rd.
00-01	Kentucky	14-11	T-6th	NCAA 2nd Rd.
01-02	Kentucky	18-9	6th	NCAA Rd. of 16
02-03	Kentucky	23-8	3rd	NCAA Rd. of 16
03-04	Kentucky	19-12	T-5th	NCAA Rd. of 16
04-05	Kentucky	26-6	1st	NCAA Qtrs.

Career Record 152-89 (.634) 9 seasons

Coaching Accolades
ITA National Coach of the Year - 2005
SEC Coach of the Year - 2003, 2005
ITA Southeast Region Coach of the Year