SC State's road to building tennis dynasty paved with trials, triumphs

When you’ve won 25 conference tennis titles — 12 men’s and 13 women’s — in a 17-year career, including 14 consecutive seasons with at least one title, it can be difficult for a coach to decide which of those championships he ranks highest.

Hardeep Judge, South Carolina State’s tennis coach since 2002, has no problem settling on his most challenging season, though. That would be the one that just concluded with this year’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference men’s crown.

It might also be his most satisfying.

“Because of the personal stories, the injuries and other losses — that’s why (this season) is special,” the 48-year-old Canadian native of Indian heritage said Thursday after a “Salute and Send-off” for his eight-man team. It was held at Orangeburg Country Club and attended by more than 100, including S.C. State President James E. Clark, Mayor Michael Butler and a representative from U.S. Sen. Tim Scott’s office.

This weekend, the Bulldogs traveled to Gainesville, Fla., where they fell 4-0 to No. 13 Florida in an NCAA Tournament first-round matchup on Saturday. Simply getting to the postseason capped an effort that Judge’s boss, first-year athletics director Stacy Danley, dubbed “phenomenal.”

Start with SCSU’s on-court woes: Before the season began in January, the Bulldogs’ No. 1 player, Vlad Yanchenko of Ukraine, went down for the regular season with a meniscus tear, and No. 2 Jakub Vitek of the Czech Republic was lost for eight weeks with an ankle injury. Edgar Diaz of Puerto Rico played the season knowing his family had lost everything when two hurricanes ravaged the island.

Then there were issues related to S.C. State’s well-documented financial difficulties. To cut expenses, school officials decided to discontinue the women’s tennis team in March 2017, on the heels of its latest MEAC title. Then, faced with potential Title IX sanctions from the NCAA, the school restored the team in December, a month before its season began.

“Some left school, and those who stayed had quit playing,” Judge said. “That also took its toll on recruiting. When we canceled the women’s season, other teams used that against us, saying ‘Don’t go there, they don’t care about tennis.’ ”

Through all that, though, Judge and the Bulldogs persevered. Three freshmen stepped in for the men’s team “and played well,” he said. Yanchenko and Vitek recovered from their injuries in time to star in the MEAC tournament in Norfolk, Va., where SCSU beat Morgan State 4-2 for the title, Yanchenko dominating his opponent, 6-2, 6-3.

The women’s team, meanwhile, used two holdover players, two recruits, a track athlete and a walk-on to fill its depleted roster. At the MEAC tournament — where Judge’s 11-year-old son, Naylin, stepped in as an “assistant coach,” shouting instructions and encouragement from outside the courts — the Bulldogs lost to eventual conference champ Morgan State.

“At the MEAC Championships, (Judge) was running back and forth from the men’s team to the women’s team,” said Danley, who attended the tournament as one of his first official acts as AD. “That’s when I realized he was something special.

“We’ve dealt with limited resources and challenging finances this year. The whole campus is in survival mode. But Hardeep’s commitment to winning … he figures out ways to get it done.”

The Bulldogs did more than survive. In their opener, S.C. State’s men won a doubles match to take a 1-0 lead against South Carolina. Wins over Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston and George Mason followed, and the Bulldogs went 4-0 in MEAC play, capturing the conference’s Southern Division.

This season, S.C. State’s performance kept it out of the dreaded last-of-64 seeding in the NCAA Tournament, avoiding a potential first-round matchup with powerhouses Wake Forest or North Carolina. That encouraged Judge that perhaps his team would not have its usual one-and-done exit.

“There are only two teams from South Carolina (State and USC) in the NCAAs, so I say that makes us the second-best team in the state,” he said before traveling to Florida. “And South Carolina beat Florida, 4-3, this season. I think we match up well against Florida.”

Financially, of course, it’s a different story. S.C. State tennis operates on a budget of $54,000, while larger programs have budgets of $800,000-$900,000. USC, Judge estimated, has at least $1 million in its till.

“To have a team, we have to raise outside funding of $100,000 to $200,000,” he said. “We’ve probably raised more money the last five years than any program in the country.” Frank Tourville, owner of Orangeburg Country Club and Zeus Industrial Products Inc., has been a major contributor, in part because Judge has also been the club’s tennis director for 20 years.

This season, S.C. State tennis produced three all-conference players, the league’s top rookie and the MEAC tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Judge, who passed the 500-wins mark, was named the 2018 tournament’s Most Outstanding Coach. The school’s on-campus tennis center is named in his honor.

“Coach Judge has created a dynasty in (MEAC) tennis,” Clark said. Judge, laughing, replied, “After 25 titles, isn’t there a car or a Rolex out there?”

For now, keeping that title-seasons streak alive will have to do.

This story was originally published May 11, 2018 at 10:01 PM with the headline "SC State's road to building tennis dynasty paved with trials, triumphs."