JESSE FERLIANTO INTERVIEW: by Tyler Gadbois

Jesse Ferlianto is an amazing person. He is one of 2 players I have had win the coveted Woodruff Scholarship. Jesse was a concert pianist, top 30 So Cal player, and a perfect student. Thankfully, he turned down Harvard's acceptance and came to Emory. At Emory, Jesse was the true embodiment of a Division III athlete. Jesse immersed himself into all that Emory could offer. He started a swing dance club, played in a jazz ensemble group, and was apart of 2 NCAA team championships. One of the marks of a truly great team player is to come each day with the right attitude. I can count the number of times on 1 hand that Jesse was in a bad mood in his 4 year career. I will never forget Jesse's freshman year. One week before heading to Nationals, I made Jesse play a challenge match for the 6 position. He had started the year at 3, but half way through the season, he got sick, and was out for a couple of weeks. Jesse never got upset, but rather understood the situation, and played the match. He won in straight sets, and ended up winning a huge match in the finals to help us capture our 1st title. Jesse had a full plate at Emory and his time was definitely stretched thin, but he never received a grade below an A during his 4 year tenure.

1. What was it like to be a part of two NCAA championship teams while at Emory?

·         In the juniors, tennis was purely an individual sport for me.  At Emory, however, I learned that winning alongside your teammates is one of the most incredible feelings you can experience in the sport.  There’s nothing else like crossing the finish line together.

·         The shared memories from those seasons were incredible.  What made those championships so sweet was the fact that we experienced humbling losses early in both seasons.  In both of those years (2003 and 2006) we lost to Gustavus Adolphus in the National Indoors (in 2006 they almost shut us out 7-0).  The losses served as reality checks that showed us we had a lot of work to do.   We worked hard throughout the season and didn’t come into the NCAA’s with any sense of entitlement.  This helped take the pressure off and allowed us to focus on playing one point at a time.

·         I had incredible teammates during my time at Emory.  We were lucky that we had each other, as we were deep team and we beat each other up regularly during practice.  The intensity of our intra-squad matches raised everyone’s level and prepared us well for the real thing.  You know that feeling when you want something so badly that it hurts to wait?  That’s how we felt throughout each season.  The weeks leading up to the tournament were surreal, since we were so close to the end and couldn’t wait for game day to come.  The NCAA’s was our version of March Madness/Superbowl/Olympic Games, since most of us had no intention of pursuing a career in the sport.  So you can imagine how incredible it felt when we finally were able to hold the trophy.

2. What were your accomplishments throughout your tennis career at Emory?

·         I had the pleasure of playing doubles with Emory hall of famer Mark Odgers during the individual fall regional tournament one year.  We won the tournament and went on to get to the finals of the small college nationals.  With Odgers’ carrying me on his shoulders, I earned All-American honors that year. 

·         Got to play alongside incredible teammates en route to the two team NCAA titles (special thanks to: Alex Jacobs, Mark Odgers, Tyson Ramsay, Josh Rubens, Brad Jaffe, Dylan Bird, Patrick Redmond, Zack Smith, Yoji Masuoka, Lee Friedman, Mike Goodwin, Mark Boren, Mike Kaufman, Hardy Ehlers along with countless others helped us along the way)

·         Other honors: career and season singles win percentage records, NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship, Co-SIDA Academic All-American – first team, South Region Rookie of the Year, South Region Arthur Ashe Sportsman of the Year, Emory All-Time UAA Team, McDonough award.

3. How were you able to balance tennis while never receiving a grade below an A and also being a Woodruff Scholar?

·         I think having a full schedule forced me to be more disciplined and intentional about time management.  If I had a wide open schedule without tennis or other obligations I probably would have let more time go to waste.  In fact, I heard that athletes at Emory tend to have better grades than non-athletes, so I believe what I experienced is actually pretty common.

4. What advice do you have for current Emory tennis players?

·         Treasure every time you step on the court.  There is no better opportunity to play this wonderful sport at the highest level!  After college, I rarely had the time to play tennis.  When I did, it was hard to find a playing partner.  If that goes smoothly, there’s still the issue of finding open courts.  Even then, it’s nearly impossible to replicate the thrill of high-level competition that I experienced at Emory.

·         Enjoy the process, not just the end result.  It’s tempting to look ahead to the holy grail of NCAA’s at the beginning of each season.  I’m all for setting longer-term goals but the long season will be more satisfying if you stay present for each practice and each match.  There is much to be gained throughout the various experiences as a college tennis player, with or without the national championship at the end of the year.

·         Don’t use match results as the only barometer of your progress.  As one of the top teams in D3, you all will win a lot more matches than you will lose.  The question is how do you stay mentally engaged when things seem to be going well all season long?  One way to continually improve is to set smaller, short-term goals for yourself throughout the season and measure progress against those individual goals.  For me, short-term goals would have been improving % points won on 2^nd serve, points won at net, etc.  Continually challenging yourself irrespective of match results will help you get the most of the time you spend on court.

5. What are you doing now?

·         I am finishing up my MBA at UCLA Anderson, graduating this June.  Afterwards I will be returning to Atlanta to work at Chick-fil-A as a marketing consultant.

·         I have also been married to my college sweetheart, Susan, for nearly 4 years.  I must say that meeting her was the best thing that happened to me during my college years.

6. How often do you play tennis?

·         Ever since moving to LA for grad school, I’ve been playing about once a week.  I have some classmates and faculty at UCLA Anderson who enjoy getting out there for some baseline games or doubles sets.  There’s nothing like time away from a sport to make you fall in love with it all over again.

·         The weather in west LA is incredible (warm, no humidity) but it definitely spoils me!  The first match I play when I return to Hotlanta will surely end in bad muscle cramps.

7. What do you miss most about Emory and college tennis?

·         I miss all of the shared times we had together as a team.  Being able to roll out of your apartment and walk to nearby tennis courts to practice with over a dozen high-caliber tennis players and friends is incredible when you stop to think about it.  Beyond the day-to-day experiences, I miss the road trips, the shared meals, the spontaneous group outings.  We made many memories and shared a lot of laughs during those 4 years.  There’s nothing really like it.  To give you a sense of the camaraderie we had, a dozen of my teammates as well as Coach Browning flew in from around the country to celebrate our wedding a few years after I graduated.  It meant so much to me to have their support for us.

·         I also really miss competition.  I crave the feeling of having playing with the match on the line, but now I don’t have as many outlets for it.

8. What teams were Emory's biggest rivals when you played?

·         Gustavus Adolphus, UC Santa Cruz, Williams, Middlebury.  Middlebury took us out of the NCAA’s my sophomore year and went on to win their first championship.  Williams was always a contender for the title as they saved their best tennis for the post-season every year.  UC Santa Cruz had a brilliant coach in Bob Hansen as he had a reputation for helping all of his players reach their full potential. They took us out in my junior year on their way to the title.  As I mentioned earlier, Gustavus beat us twice at the National Indoors.  We always knew that we’d be in for a dog fight with any of these teams.

9. Why did you decide to go to Emory?

·         Emory had everything.  A world-class academic reputation, a strong undergrad business program through the Goizueta Business School, and a good chance to compete in the NCAA championships each year. Being a part of the Emory Scholars program was also a huge plus.

10. What was your favorite part about playing for Coach Browning?

·         I love Coach Browning’s ability to unify teams year after year.  He had a way of taking any diverse group of young men and making them all feel like they were a part of something fun and special.  He has a great sense of humor and helped us stay loose when things got tense.  No matter where we started each season, morale was always high by the end.

·         At the same time, Coach Browning also has a special ability to customize his coaching style for each player.  He understood all of our quirky habits and preferences and used these insights to help us perform our best.

DEPAUW

Johns Hopkins was a big match for us, sometimes, teams can have a massive let down after a big match. The great thing about this team is they really take each match seriously. Our senior and junior leaders set the tone and take a very professional approach. It makes my job easy.

Depauw is a well-coached team that has always played us tough. They have a lot of heart and never give up. This match was also very special in that we were supporting Depauw's head coach who was diagnosed with Parkinson's last year. My father was also diagnosed with the disease, it meant a great to deal to me that the players dawned the Parkinson's bracelet in support of the cause.

We got off to a very fast start in doubles at 2 & 3 doubles. Kahler and Wagner were too much at 2, serving big and doing a great job in return games. At 3, Pottish and Kowalski, played great and were beginning to feel very comfortable together. At 1, Hump and Goody struggled, but stayed with it. They eventually won, didn't play great, but stayed with it, and were slowly finding there 2011 form.

Singles was impressive. Pottish played great at 1, and has been finding his game, playing much more aggressively. Goody, at 2, struggled a bit in the 1st,but found his dominant form in the 2nd., He's very close to going to another level, and it doesn't hurt, that he's close to 100%. Kowalski, at 3, played a scrappy player, and saved his best tennis for the 3rd set breaker. At 4, Wagner, played one of his best matches of the season. Great bounce back from the Hopkins match, and most importantly, he was mentally poised throughout the match. Halp and Rud, were dominant at 5 &6. They are the linchpins to our success this year.

Great match, and more importantly, it was a great cause that we were supporting! Hopefully, the smart people can find a cure soon.

JOHNS HOPKINS MATCH

When I put together our 2012 schedule, I was very concerned about the Johns Hopkins match for a couple of reasons. First, they had a strong recruiting class and we were just getting back from an exhausting spring break trip. Our match was set for Thursday, so we had a few days to get our legs back and also get used to the yellow pollen caked courts.

I think the team also realized how tough the match was going to be. Hopkins was our first big match in our new stadium. As we were warming up, I was amazed at how great our new venue was with our stands and scoreboard. It completely changed the atmosphere. The crowd was late coming, but the stands were eventually filling up, and those that were there, were extremely loud. An awesome homecourt advantage.

The night before the match I decided to switch the doubles lineup. I wanted to eventually put Goodwin/Humphrey's back together at the number 1 spot. They were amazing last year, but I didn't know if the Hopkins match was the right time, especially because we were going to have a new team at 3 dubs with Kowal/Pottish playing for the first time. In hindsight, it was incredibly stupid on my part.

Doubles was going to be key for this match because Hopkins was definitely stronger in singles, so getting off to a great start was very very important. Doubles started out really shaky. The only team that came out firing was our 2 team. They got up an early break and were rolling. We got down early breaks at 1 and 3. At 1, the Hopkins team was playing well and Goodwin and Humphrey's were struggling to hold serve. Finally, they started finding their rhythm by breaking back, but, in the end, they only held once and ended up losing the pro- set.

We were now tied 1-1 and the Pottish and Kowalski found themselves down 7-4. At this point, my decision to change teams was beginning to backfire on us, and I was definitely not happy. Pottish and Kowal, fought back and didn't allow themselves to get mentally taken out of the match. They stormed back and won 9-7, giving us a 2-1 lead, and a great deal of mo. It was an amazing mental effort on their part and I instantly felt a little relieved. Still, when I look back it, that mistake on my part could have been ugly.

I also made a switch at 4 and 5 singles. I bumped up Halpern to 4 and moved Wagner down to 5. As singles began, we seemed to be in control. Pottish, who had been struggling to find his game, played one his best matches of the season against a tenacious competitor. Pott's played aggressively looking to  hit his forehand. At 3, Kowalski was playing a freshman, who had a record of 9-0 against him in the juniors. Kowalski, put aside the past failures, and took out Hopkins player 6-0 in the first. It was by far his best tennis of the season. Goody at 2, was playing a freshman who had some strong results against good competition, and I knew that Goody was still not at the top of his game. He managed to compete hard and took the first set. Halpern at 4, got off to a slow start, but battled back and won the 1st set. Wagner, at 5, was playing there best spot. The player was very good and Wags had a tough time stay mentally focused. He ended up losing the first set. At 6, Ruderman was locked in battle with another very good freshman and found himself down an early break. Rud is a very good competitor and didn't allow the early break to get to him. He ended up wining the first set.

Potts finished off the number 1, and I was thrilled at his level. Kowalski, got down an early break, but stayed with it, and finally, beat his junior rival for the first time. Kowalski, was definitely one our MVP's of the day. It was a hot day which at this stage of the season was not ideal for Goody. He ended up losing the 2nd set to a scrappy player. Wagner fought back in the second set, but could never  find his rhythm serving and eventually lost. At this point, we had won the match, but we still had 3 matches going on. Halpern was on serve in the 2nd set, and Ruderman finally won at 6, winning one his most important matches of season.

Once the match was decided, Goody had to play a breaker for the 3rd which was to our advantage. He played a great 10 point breaker, beating Hopkins decisively. Halpern, last match on, is very tough to beat, and in the end, he was too much, giving us a final score of 7-2.

It was a great match for us, and once again, the team rose to occasion. It was by far one our best effort in singles. It was nice to see the crowd support us throughout, and especially, our 2nd team was huge. Their support was definitely a big factor in aiding us to our win.