Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2009

Columbia native Bogue finds success in MEAC

Dreher High, Presbyterian alum won league coaching awards

Columbia-native Trey Bogue knows now how his first tennis coaches felt.

Bogue, who began playing tennis under the tutelage of local greats like Carol Fowles, Bernie McGuire and David Kleinfelder, recently won honors as the MEAC men’s Co-coach of the Year and women’s Coach of the Year for his work at Bethune-Cookman University.

But Bogue, like his early mentors, takes more delight in having impacted the lives of his athletes.

“The biggest highlights for me have been when some of our kids actually graduated that have had some problems with school. We’ve had some 30 players or so on all-conference teams; I’m very proud of that. I’m also very proud of our graduation rates,” Bogue said.

Since 2001, Bogue has compiled a 166-202 combined record at the historically black college in Daytona Beach, Fla. In 2006, he led the women’s team to the HBCU National Tennis Championship.

Bogie, who is white, says coaching at an historically black college has been the same as anywhere else — “I was the only white guy on the Dreher varsity basketball team,” he says — but recruiting athletes prove to be a challenge.

“There are very few African-American players to pick and choose from, and ... my first couple of years, I couldn’t sign anybody,” he said.

“I had to refocus on how we tried to recruit.”

Bogue didn’t change the formula this season as he earned his 200th career victory in March when his women’s team defeated Mount Saint Mary’s. Both of his teams improved over their 2008 results and two of his athletes earned national ITA All-Academic honors.

“I just think that the other coaches in the conference, the other SIDs realized how much we’d done with our program,” said Bogue, who believes his men’s team is on the verge of becoming a conference leader.

“I’ve always thought that when a coach won player of the year, that was more about his players and it is really a team award. But also it was a big shot in the arm to know that we must be doing something right.”

Bogue give all the credit to those gave him his start in the sport.

Bogue said he was far from making a career in tennis when he linked up as a 12-year-old with youth coaches Carol and Burton Fowles.

“I played baseball, basketball and football and I really am grateful to them for opening a world to me outside the big three sports,” Bogue said.

His parents, Anne Lipscomb and Bob Bogue, made a modest living, and Bogue figured college would be a financial impossibility.

The Dreher alumnus said Kleinfelder helped him stay focused and fit, and the combination of his academics and tennis skills helped him earn a spot at Presbyterian College.

He took his first head coaching job just months after his 1988 graduation and — after a brief stint as a custom log home salesman — is heading for his 15th season as a college tennis coach, much to McGuire’s delight.

“I’m glad he’s still in tennis, and he’s obviously sharing his love of tennis with young people and doing it well. Every time that I step on the court with a junior, I want them to enjoy the sport as much as I do, and I see them hopefully making it a career,” said McGuire, who has been a tennis professional and coach for 34 years.

Bogue hopes his career will be as lengthy.

His former coach offered some advice.

“It gets monotonous sometimes when you tell someone ‘get your racket back, bend your knees,’ but there are so many new things that have been coming out that you can get into, because the variety is the biggest thing that’ll sustain you,” McGuire said.

It’s advice Bogue is sure to follow. His youth coaches never steered him wrong before.

Reach Nelson at (803) 771-8419.

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