Ryun Ferrell is in his third season as NIU women’s tennis head coach. After leaving Drake with a Missouri Valley Conference record of 51-19, Ferrell joined NIU to help rebuild the current program.

Ferrell spoke with the Northern Star to discuss his time as a coach at NIU and his experiences with tennis.

Mike Romor: How did you get involved with tennis?

Ryun Ferrell: My mom and my dad played a lot, and growing up I never really took it seriously. I would grab a ball and a racket and be kind of goofy, but then I switched high schools from my sophomore year to my junior year. We really started that year and that’s the first time I got serious about it. I played four singles and one doubles and I kind of just went from there; it was kind of neat. My senior year I played two singles and one doubles and it blossomed from there. I played four years in college, then tried to play after college. I got my butt royally kicked a lot, so that lasted all of about two weeks and then I got into coaching.

MR: So what brought you to NIU after success at Drake?

RF: The program was not in the best spot in the world. At Drake I had kind of done about all that I could do. It had become cyclical where we would be good for a while then when I would lose my good players I’d have to rebuild it again, so I kind of knew what was going to happen with that. I threw my name in the hat for this job and I knew it would be a rebuilding project. I actually have some family that lives in Chicago, so it was nice to be a little closer to my sisters. But the idea of taking something and trying to build it from the ground up was what intrigued me with this job. I applied for it, interviewed, and was lucky enough to get it.

MR: What are some differences between the Missouri Valley Conference and the MAC?

RF: When I was in the Valley at Drake, there was about four matches we knew that we could win without doing a whole heck of a lot of work. We could easily be fifth in that conference without lifting a finger. If you wanted to be top three, you’d have to work pretty hard. Their top three are pretty good, so that would probably be the difference. In the MAC there is no easy match. I’ve had teams that were just as good as any team in the Valley when I was at Drake and we’re struggling a little bit in the month of April. It’s just because every match is downright brutal. Here, it’s just like you have to draw a line in the sand, put your fist out there, pop them in the jaw and be ready to go all day.

MR: What should we be looking forward to seeing from the program?

RF: We’re getting Katie Friedlund back here hopefully soon. We haven’t had her for a decent amount because she’s had some wrist issues, and we’ve been fixing those and that’s a big thing. It’s like losing your starting pitcher in the lineup. Just from attitude alone, that’s big. The thing that you’ll see the most probably with NIU women’s tennis is we’re not out there to win sportsmanship awards. We’ll draw a line in the sand and we’re ready to pick a fight. Granted, we don’t cross the line, we’re not disrespectful but we’re going to be in your face, we’re going to push you and go after you as hard as we can for as long as we can. It’s kind of like poker; as long as we have one chip left we’ll be throwing ourselves out there to see what we can do.

MR: What changes have you seen since you’ve arrived?

RF: The big thing we had to do is we had to get fit. By the time we got to April, the team was pretty tired and they just couldn’t last as long as we wanted. We’re at a stage now where we’re incredibly fit. If I ask the girls to run 20 miles they can go do it, no problem. The next thing we have to do is get a little smarter on the court. That’s starting to come around because the talent we’re getting is better and better, so now we just have to get smarter and smarter. Now with the recruiting class I have this year I have very, very smart players. With the class coming in next year they are even smarter than the class before. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is this.

MR: What do you contribute your dedication to coaching to?

RF: I like teaching life lessons. I try to help kids understand that if you do this a certain way, you’ll get this result and when they ask how I know, it’s because I did it the wrong way and I got screwed. That’s what gets me going. I like teaching kids that stuff and I like to see the development of a kid from when she’s 18 to when she’s 22 and she’s a young woman ready to take on the world and win. I really enjoy that process probably the most, but a tight second would be that I am very, very competitive. I hate to lose. If you and I were to play Slapjack I’d want to kick your ass, let alone any other game.