After 26 years as head coach for Georgetown’s tennis team, Rich Bausch resigned over winter break, Athletic Director Bernard uir announced Jan. 4.
Bausch is the third Georgetown head coach to resign following the fall athletic season. The Athletic Department has already filled the positions for the volleyball and football head coaches, Li Liu and Bob Benson, who both resigned over the winter break.
A university press release said that Bausch resigned for “personal reasons.” He could not be reached for comment.
“We regret when a person of Rich’s caliber and experience leaves, but fully understand the stresses that go hand-in-hand with coaching,” Muir said in the release. “We sincerely wish Rich all the best in the future.”
“At a meeting at the first day of school we were told by the athletic director that they’re trying to find a head coach as soon as possible,” sophomore team captain Steph Cohen said.
Players learned of their coach’s resignation in a team e-mail over winter break. The Athletic Department told them that Bausch resigned on his own terms and that he was not forced out, according to Cohen.
Bausch had been active in tennis instruction and promotion at many levels during his time at Georgetown. On the Hilltop, Bausch was the director of racquet sports, head tennis professional and pro shop manager at Yates Field House. He organized the annual D.C. etropolitan Championships, and he served as the president of the Big East Tennis Coaches’ Association from 1987-95.
The 1989-90 season marked a high point in Bausch’s coaching career, as the men’s team won the Big East championship that spring, the only conference title either tennis team won under Bausch. That year he won the 1990 Hoyas Unlimited Coaching Achievement Award.
Bausch’s tenure over the past couple of years had seen its share of ups and downs. The men’s team finished fifth in the six-team Big East championship in the spring of 2005, its highest finish since the 1994-95 team finished fourth. The men’s team improved its dual-meet record from 6-15 in 2003-04 to 7-8 in 2004-05.
The women’s team, meanwhile, went from a dismal 2-17 record in 2003-04 to 9-12 last year.
But the women’s team played its spring season last year without its No. 1 singles player. When Liora Gelblum (SFS ’05) accepted a 10-day fellowship that would cause her to miss three non-conference matches and four practices, Bausch dismissed her from the team. According to Gelblum, her teammates supported her and held meetings with Bausch discussing their wish to keep her on the team, but he remained resolute.
Bausch’s resignation comes less than a month before the start of the spring season, considered the more important of the two collegiate tennis seasons because it includes conference matches. The men will participate in the Virginia Commonwealth Invitational from Jan. 20-22, while the women will play in the same meet just one weekend later.
Team captains have been organizing practices recently, but acting coaches – the current assistant coaches, most likely – will probably start directing regular varsity practice on onday, according to Cohen.
