The Switch

After Newman's fantastic playing career at Trinty, it wasn't ever in his immediate plans to return and coach the same team he was apart of. However, in 1986 the University reached out and offered him the job after letting the previous coach go. Newman accepted and began pouring into the program that had given him so much as a player. It wasn’t all smooth sailing when Newman took over, though. The program was still Division 1 at the time and had fallen off, nowhere to be found in the national rankings. But Newman’s tennis knowledge and commitment to values he had learned there himself started making an immediate impact. In just 5 years Newman brought the program back into the national spotlight in Division I tennis with the team sitting at #15 nationally. They had a talented group of players and strong recruits coming in for the season of '91 and were planning on making a push back to the top of rankings. That is until everything changed. 

In 1991 Trinity University made the difficult decision to switch the Men’s Tennis program from Division I to Division III. The drop to Division III had been discussed for at least five years, but the decision came quickly and without warning (Carter, 1991). During a September retreat, the administration recommended to the board that the time to act was then, and in November of that year, Newman and his team received the devastating news. The choice shook Newman and the program to its core. Everything he had built in the few years since taking the job was just washed away. The biggest change that came with the switch of divisions had to do with scholarship money. Division III athletics is not permitted to offer athletic scholarships under NCAA regulations, and therefore, the players on the Trinity Men’s Tennis Team were left with 3 options (Carter, 1991). They could transfer to another tennis scholarship program and compete without loss of eligibility, they could remain at Trinity on scholarship but not play tennis, or they could stay at Trinity, give up the tennis scholarship and be eligible for the same type of financial aid available to other students, and compete in Division III (Carter, 1991).

Unfortunately for Newman, most of his players opted to transfer out to continue their collegiate athletic careers. Despite the tumultuous turn of events just 5 years into his coaching career, Newman didn’t settle. On top of all of the men leaving the team, Newman inherited the woman’s program as well. He was faced with a decision; accept defeat and leave along with his players, or step into the role as coach of both programs and go the distance. He chose the latter.