_ctofeatured.jpg)
Tony Bresky
Tony Bresky, considered one of the best young coaches in the country, recently completed his first season as head coach of the Wake Forest men's tennis team.
In his inaugural campaign in Winston-Salem, Bresky inherited a roster of only three players with significant collegiate experience, but still managed to guide the Demon Deacons to a 14-15 record and a quarterfinal appearance at the ACC Championship. David Hopkins and Danny Kreyman both earned All-ACC honors and junior Amogh Prabhakar blossomed under Bresky's tutelage, going 21-6 in dual match singles play while seeing his first regular collegiate action.
Bresky hit the recruiting trail immediately after accepting the Wake Forest job, and after only two months at the helm of the Demon Deacon program, he signed an impressive recruiting class that was ranked as the sixth-best in the nation by the Tennis Recruiting Network, making it one of the best in school history.
Bresky took over the helm of the Demon Deacons in September of 2011 after spending one season as the head coach at Cornell where he led the Big Red to its best season in program history.
In addition to his success at Cornell, Bresky brought a wealth of ACC experience with him to Winston-Salem, having served as associate head coach at Virginia from 2002-2010, helping guide the Cavaliers to six ACC Championships.
In 2011 with the Big Red, Bresky led the squad to a 26-5 record overall and a perfect 7-0 mark in Ivy League play, earning the team its first-ever Ivy League championship and first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. Prior to Bresky's arrival at Cornell, no Big Red men's tennis team had ever won more than 20 matches in a season.
Under his direction, the Big Red placed three players on the All-Ivy League teams in 2011 in four positions, led by Jonathan Jaklitsch, who earned first-team honors in both singles and doubles. Also garnering all-league accolades were Andy Gauthier in singles and Evan Bernstein in doubles. That total marks the most league award winners in a single season in Cornell men's tennis history.
An impressive recruiter, Bresky was able draw top-caliber players to Ithaca. His 2011 incoming class at Cornell was ranked as the fifth-best nationally by the Tennis Recruiting Network and was the only class from a non-BCS conference school to be ranked in the top-10.
Bresky came to Cornell after helping to guide Virginia to a berth in the 2010 NCAA Men's Tennis Final Four, earning the top seed and falling to eventual national champion USC. He helped lead Virginia to a 39-2 overall record, including a school-record 36-match winning streak.
Bresky's list of accomplishments during his tenure at Virginia is lengthy, highlighted by the Cavaliers earning the top national ranking in singles, doubles and as a team on multiple occasions. The Cavaliers won seven straight Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championships and six ACC tournament titles in the seven seasons. With Bresky on the coaching staff, Virginia won 62 straight ACC matches and had 19 singles players and nine doubles teams qualify for both the NCAA singles and doubles championships over the past seven seasons.
Bresky helped to lead the Cavaliers to the national semifinals three times, the national quarterfinals three times and one appearance in the round of 16. He had two players at Virginia earn the NCAA singles championship and one team win the national doubles crown, while having 11 student-athletes earn All-America honors.
The 2005 ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year, Bresky was a three-time Mideast Region Assistant Coach of the Year (2004, 2009, 2010) and was the only assistant coach in the nation to be named to an ITA committee when he was placed on the ITA Ethics and Infractions Committee. While at Virginia, the men's tennis program has graduated 100 percent of its student athletes.
During the summer of 2009, Bresky served as the USTA Men's Summer Collegiate Team Coach, providing elite training for the top varsity collegiate players in the country. The program, designed to provide players with exposure to the professional circuit in a team-oriented environment, saw players competing at USTA Pro Circuit events including the US Open.
Bresky's experience also includes a stint as a private tennis coach in Bronxville, N.Y., in 2001 and 2002, highlighted by his mentoring of Stephen Bass, who was ranked as high as 11th in the USTA junior national rankings. Bass would go on to earn a scholarship to Notre Dame and earn All-America honors while playing for the Fighting Irish.
Bresky also spent time as the Assistant Director of Tennis for Tennis Europe, a program designed to train junior tennis teams traveling throughout Europe. He also spent two years as a graduate assistant coach at Indiana State, where he helped to guide the Sycamores to a No. 17 national ranking.
While at Indiana State, Bresky earned a master's degree in business administration. He helped lead the Sycamores to their first Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships in school history, while posting a 50-8 overall record. The men's tennis team had the top overall grade point average among men's team sports at Indiana State.
Bresky earned his bachelor's degree in business with a major in accounting from Western Illinois in 1998. He played four years of tennis for the Leathernecks, earning Mid-Continent Conference Freshman of the Year honors in 1994 and garnering league player of the year accolades in each of the next three seasons. He led WIU to the program's first Mid-Continent Conference championship in 1995 and successfully defended the team title the following year. Bresky was a two-time ITA Scholastic All-American in 1996 and 1997 and was a three-year team captain.
