POCATELLO, Idaho – This week ISU Head Coach
Bobby Goeltz sat down with isubengals.com to discuss his background in the sport of tennis and how he made the transition from head coach at Maryland to Idaho State where he has held the head coaching position for 22 years. In fact, behind head track and field coach
Dave Nielsen's 28 years and head cross country coach
Brian Janssen's 27 seasons, Goeltz has one of the longest coaching careers in ISU history.
Head men and women's tennis coach
Bobby Goeltz first got into tennis around the age of five and was highly influenced by his father, one of the top tennis pros in the country. His players went on to win approximately 120 national titles.
“He coached for about 50-60 years and was a true student of the game,” Goeltz said. “For him it wasn't about the money, it was purely about teaching and coaching. Even in retirement we would give free lessons because he enjoyed it that much.”
Goeltz participated in his first tournament at the age of nine, beginning a long career in tennis. He played tennis at Landon High School and attended Princeton, graduating in 1970.
Prior to Idaho State, Goeltz spent 10 years as the head coach at Maryland. Goeltz took the program there from the bottom of the ACC to one of the top teams in the nation and led the men to a NIT championship in 1985. While working primarily with the men's program in the beginning of his tenure there, Goeltz later headed the women's program as well.
In 1990, budget constraints caused Maryland to cut scholarships for both the men and women's tennis teams. Knowing that it would be extremely difficult to compete in the ACC without scholarships and not knowing when or if the scholarships would be reinstated, Goeltz began to browse the NCAA newsletter and found an opening at Idaho State.
Goeltz had a connection to Pocatello as the athletic director at the time, Randy Hoffman, had been the golf coach at Maryland when Goeltz started there.
“I called out here to talk to Randy about the job,” Goeltz said. “He told me that the job was mine if I wanted it and to fly out to Pocatello and check it out. I had been to and lived in California and been to Salt Lake City but I had never been to a town the size of Pocatello. It was a whole new world and an exact opposite from my home on the east coast.”
Despite the many differences, Goeltz made Pocatello his home but also spent the first 15-17 years of his career in Pocatello travelling back and forth from Idaho to New Jersey where he held a position as head tennis pro.
While at the helm of both Bengal squads, Goeltz has faced many challenges. Once again he was faced with scholarship cuts as well as the demands of coaching both programs.
“Cuts in scholarships make it difficult to recruit but now that we've started to get the scholarships back, it is now just taking some time to rebuild the program,” Goeltz said. “We now have some very promising recruits coming in. I told Jeff [Tingey] we will be back it's just going to take some time.”
Goeltz also faces the challenge of heading both the men and women's programs where most schools in the Big Sky Conference have different head coaches for each program.
“It's like the difference between having an only child and two,” Goeltz said. “You have to divide your time, money and commitments in half.”
The main issue Goeltz faces is in travel. With all the coaches in the conference responsible for scheduling their own matches, Goeltz often attempts to minimize the travelling expenses for both squads by maximizing the number of matches he can play while in a specific area. However, with other schools the men's team and women's team are often going in different directions, making the scheduling process difficult.
For Goeltz, the biggest reward of what he does is in giving young men and women the opportunity to play tennis while earning their degrees.
“I have no clue, nor do I care about my overall wins and losses,” Goeltz said. “All I care about is kids getting degrees. That's why they are at a university and that's the focus. I have had a couple of athletes go on to the pro tour and a lot of athletes on the pro tour don't have a degree or didn't go to college. At least my athletes have a degree to fall back on. Without a degree you can't do much but coach and being a great player doesn't mean you'll be a great coach. I'm not developing pro players and that's why I am still in the business. Education is my priority and I would take a Big Sky Scholar award over a Big Sky Championship any day.”
In his spare time, Goeltz enjoys spending his time on the golf course.
“I love to play golf,” Goeltz said. “I'm not very good and don't have much time to practice, but I love it. I've only played about four times in Idaho. I usually only play on te hroad and usually with my son and brother. I've been all over and played and at some really tough courses which I love.”
Goeltz has one son, Robert Goeltz II, one daughter, Christina, and four granddaughters. His son played golf in college at Maryland and Emery while his daughter attended his alma mater Princeton, graduating in 1997. His wife Betsy earned her PhD in education at ISU after moving here and has had a very successful career in education here in Idaho.
Goeltz will begin his 23
rd season as the Bengals' head coach this fall and looks to continue on the success of the 2012 season where both squads saw significant improvement. The ISU men, who came in just one win shy of punching their ticket to the Big Sky Tournament, return five to the roster next season including all-conference second team honoree
Krzysztof Stempien. The women return six players next fall including freshman standout
Marian Tangarife.
We Are Your Bengals
