Silviu Tanasolu
Silviu Tanasoiu comes to the Big Red via the University of Oklahoma, where he has served as an assistant coach with the Sooners' men's tennis team for five years and was named the ITA Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year in both 2010 and 2011.
“We feel very fortunate to have attracted such a terrific young coach to lead our intercollegiate tennis program and our men's team,” said Andy Noel, the Meakem*Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education. “I believe Silviu possesses the skills, work ethic and intangibles to maintain and ultimately grow our program to new heights.”
Tanasoiu, a native of Romania, was part of a wide variety of day-to-day operations, including coaching, facilitating practices, planning, conditioning, promoting, scheduling, marketing, making travel arrangements, ordering equipment and managing the team's budget.
But his recruiting ability was paramount. Among the players he lured to Oklahoma were Andrei Daescu (ranked No. 10 in NCAA singles and a 2010 All-American), Ionut Beleleu (No. 50 in NCAA singles) and Costin Paval (No. 62 in NCAA singles and a 2010 All-American). The Sooners reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history in 2010.
With the Sooners, Tanasoiu implemented video analysis, sports psychology, nutrition education and conditioning specific to the sport. He also served as co-director of the OU/Nike summer tennis camps and was the director of the 2011 OU High Performance Camp.
He also has experience as a personal coach for professional Anda Perianu from 2004-2006, helping Perianu compete in 11 Grand Slam events and reach No. 120 in the WTA rankings. Prior to that, Tanasoiu worked for a year and a half as the assistant tennis professional at Cherry Valley Country Club on Long Island.
Tanasoiu earned his bachelor's degree in pyschology from the University of Oklahoma in 2006. He competed with the Sooners for three seasons, earning first-team All-Big 12 recognition in 2003 and 2004. For those two seasons, he was also an ITA Academic All-American, and a member of Leadership Scholars, Dean's Honor Roll and President's Honor Roll.
He started his collegiate career at Louisiana-Monroe. Back in his native Romania, Tanasoiu was the national junior champion in 1998 and 1999, also cracking the top 50 in the European junior rankings in the latter year.
