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Univ. of New Orleans Team Page

The University of New Orleans men's and women's tennis programs are slated to return to action this coming fall. Burzis Kanga, named head coach of the program in February, took time to sit down with UNOPrivateers.com to discuss what it takes to build a program from the ground up as he looks to re-establish a program that was put on hold due to Hurricane Katrina.

Q: What is the hardest thing about starting a program from the ground up?

The first thing that you are doing is trying to get the word out about your programs and communicate with your recruits the legitimate concerns that they may have. The most challenging thing is recruiting and convincing these players whether they are local, national or international that the city is coming back stronger than ever. I look at the positives what the city and the university has to offer. I tell them about the scheduling; the coaching and that they are being part of something special. If they come to UNO, they are going to be part of not only rebuilding the program, but also rebuilding the university and the city.

So, the number one thing for me, building a program from the beginning has to get the word out, that we are in the recovery mode, that we are stronger than ever. What we did not have then, we have now. We have 26 courts at our state of the art facility. We want to have a program that will compete against the nationally ranked teams in the country. The challenge of recruiting is what it is, but we have goals that we are expecting to achieve.

Q: What is your scheduling philosophy and how is it different now that you are building a new program?

My attitude is that there has to be a good balance in scheduling. You want to have teams that you can compete with. I tend to favor more of a tougher schedule than a "win-loss schedule”.

To bring this program up to a level in which it can compete for a conference championship, we are going to have to play nationally-ranked teams. We have to schedule teams that are in the top 50 as we have a few in our conference. We have enough competition in the state of Louisiana, with schools like LSU, UL-Lafayette, ULM, Southeastern, Centenary, Grambling, Nicholls and more. I enjoy playing these teams, it makes it interesting and we have Tulane for the women, which will be a good rival.

Q: What things do you use to sell recruits as a first-year head coach that is different from a coach who has an established program?

In every letter that I send out, I tell them that they are going to make a difference in the rebuilding of the city. I also tell them that they will be involved in the revitalization of a program that was severely damaged due to Hurricane Katrina and will have the opportunity to put it on the map. At UNO, they will have a greater impact on coming to this university than they would at an established program. There’s a chance here to be a “big fish in a small pond”.


Q: What kind of student-athletes are you looking to recruit, especially this first recruiting class?

I am looking for number one, a student-athlete in that order. A player who can come in who is academically sound, but is wanting to compete at a very high level. I am also looking for a good balance between a junior college players and freshmen players as well as transfers, so we have a nice balance of players with different eligibility left instead of all freshmen or all junior college players. If we get the right players, they can really help us a great deal.

Q: What do you expect in year one of the tennis program?

I would like for us to be as competitive as we can be. I am not looking it as a year one thing where we attempt to reach .500 or a certain win total. I am looking at it as my job to find players who can make us competitive right away. It is up to the players and me to put a stamp on this program that we are a team to be reckoned with.

Q: What is your feeling towards who have students that are academically sound?

If you bring in good, quality student-athletes, number one you do not have to worry about them off the court. They are more responsible and they are able to manage their time more efficiently. It will assist us in giving them more aid through an academic scholarship on top of their athletic scholarship. If they have a necessary grade point average, they can get further assistance financially.

Q: How quickly will it take to become a contender in the race for the conference title?

In my third year, I hope that we are right there for the conference championship. There is not any one team that can dominate the conference at this time as there may have been in the past. It goes back to recruiting, if we can get the right people in, we can be up there. With all the time and effort that we have spent on putting this program together, there's nothing more that I want than to win a conference championship and to be a top 50 team.

Q: What are your short and long-term goals for the program?

The short term goal is to have at least six men and women players in the fall who are competitive and can represent us in a presentable manner to start off the program. The long term goal is to be a team that would be in the thick of it for the conference championship and that a team that would develop a reputation of being a nationally ranked program.

Q: What are you looking to do as far as partnering with the local tennis community?

In time, my goal is to develop a booster club in which I'd like to get the tennis community behind us and to be able share the enthusiasm as far as having this great facility and having a stadium court, in which they can witness world class tennis. They do not necessarily have to see a pro tournament, because these kids can play a very high level of tennis, just like those top 100 world-ranked players who play at satellite events.

The community support will be crucial as far as us building a program. If you look at the successful programs, they have a strong booster club with the community behind them. That's another challenge, getting the community back into it and we will look to do that.