8 — Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Adam Steinberg sat in his office, 
feet up on his desk, and consid-
ered a tradeoff that would alter the 
trajectory of his coaching career 
and tennis legacy. The June 2014 
calendar on his wall seemed like a 
ticking time bomb.
As Steinberg leaned back in his 
chair, he pondered swapping the 
soft sand of Malibu’s beaches for 
Ann Arbor’s brutal winters. He 
weighed the prospect of leaving 
the national powerhouse he es-
tablished as the head coach of the 
Pepperdine men’s tennis program 
— where he was sitting on a 265-92 
record over 13 years — for Michi-
gan, which hadn’t advanced past 
the second round of the NCAA 
Tournament since 2008.
While contemplating this, it oc-
curred to Steinberg that the 
change of scenery would amount 
to much more than just leaving 
palm trees in his past.
As his eyes wandered around his 
office, Steinberg recalled some of 
his greatest achievements during 
his memorable tenure with the 
Waves. An NCAA championship 
banner, 2006 National Coach of 
the Year plaque and over a decade’s 
worth of team photos dangled 
from the wall — enveloping Stein-
berg in the nostalgia of his most 
successful coaching stint to date. 
But when push came to shove, 
Steinberg’s competitive edge — a 
driving force in his playing days 
on Long Island and at Penn State 
— wouldn’t let the task of righting 
the ship at Michigan slip through 
the cracks.
“It was a very hard decision,” 
Steinberg said. “Pepperdine was 
special, but after being there 12 
years, I was ready for a new chal-
lenge. Not many times in your life 
does a Michigan come along with 
that combination of athletics and 
academics. It was just too good to 
pass up at that stage of my life.”
After 13 seasons, a 2006 national 
title and 10 West Coast Confer-
ence Tournament championships, 
Steinberg called Pepperdine Di-
rector of Athletics Steve Potts to 
inform him of his decision.
With that, he punched his ticket 
to Ann Arbor, where a program 
mired in mediocrity stood stag-
nant at a crossroads between con-
tention and irrelevance.
When Steinberg stepped down at 
Pepperdine, it wasn’t the first time 
he left a successful head coaching 
post in favor of a new challenge.
The first time, it was June 2002. 
A 36-year-old Steinberg had just 
wrapped up his fifth year as the 
head coach at Alabama. Under his 
tutelage, the Crimson Tide fin-
ished the season ranked inside the 
top-25 in four of five seasons.
Though Steinberg was one of the 
country’s youngest coaches at the 
time of his Pepperdine interview, 
experience was one of his strong 
suits. He became the head coach 
at St. John’s in 1990, just two years 
after the end of his playing career 
at Penn State. During his five-year 
tenure with the Red Storm, Stein-
berg guided the program to a 61-22 
overall record — highlighted by a 
conference championship in his 
debut season 

— before accepting a job as North-
western’s assistant coach after the 
1995 season. He spent two years 
there, where he helped the Wild-
cats reach the NCAA Tournament 
in 2001 and 2002.
It was at that point that Pepper-
dine Director of Athletics Dr. John 
Watson gave Steinberg a call about 
the Waves’ head coaching job.
“In the interview process, he an-
swered all the questions (the way) 
I wanted him to in tennis and stu-
dent development, but also as hu-
man beings,” Watson told The Dai-
ly in a January phone interview. 
“He was an ethical person and a 
strong leader. He has a strong per-
sonality, but he’s also compassion-
ate and understanding.
When Watson formally offered 
him the position, Steinberg looked 
him in the eye and made a guaran-
tee before even picking up his pen 
to sign the contract.
“You will have a national champi-
onship in four years.”
Sure enough, the Pepperdine play-
ers dumped a cooler of Gatorade on 
their coach after upsetting Georgia 
in the NCAA Tournament final 
four years later.
“Winning is important to him,” 
Watson said, “but not everything 
to him — he wants his players to be 
successful on the court, but more 
importantly successful in life.”
Michigan’s 
academic 
prestige, 
coupled with the camaraderie of 
its athletic pride and tradition, was 
enough to sway Steinberg to pack 
his bags.
Before he was an All-American, 
Michigan’s captain and national 
singles runner-up, 2018 gradu-
ate Alex Knight was just another 
redshirt freshman. A little more 
than a month before Steinberg 
was named the Wolverines’ head 
coach, Knight’s phone buzzed as 
a call came in from then-coach 
Bruce Berque, who recruited 
Knight and welcomed him with 
open arms as an early enrollee.
Their relationship was short lived.
After the team failed to advance 
past the second round of the 
NCAA Tournament for the sixth 
straight season, then-Athletic Di-
rector Dave Brandon decided it 
was time for a change. Berque had 
been fired, bringing his decade-
long stint in Ann Arbor to a close.
“Winning and inclusivity wasn’t 
(Berque’s) primary goal,” Knight 
said. “He would admit it too — he 
didn’t crack down on a few guys 
he should’ve. The reason for the 
(shortcomings) was a kind of 
clown culture.”
When Brandon hired Steinberg, 
his new leader embodied the 
much-needed attitude change he 
sought throughout his national 
search. As a result, Knight and his 
teammates saw their goals align 
with Steinberg’s from the start.
“After (Berque was fired), players 
wanted an environment that was 
positive, fun and hard-working,” 
Knight told The Daily three weeks 
ago. “(Steinberg) came in and said 
the exact same things, and we had 
to start from ground zero to lay the 
foundation 
for 

the program.”
With a blueprint in place, the team 
began to build.
When Steinberg joined the fold, 
Brandon also brought back Sean 
Maymi, the Wolverines’ former 
associate head coach under Ber-
que from 2006-2011. Knight cred-
its Maymi with installing the pro-
gram’s work ethic, accountability 
and precise attention to detail.
Still, Steinberg’s cultural renova-
tion didn’t yield immediate results. 
Michigan posted a 7-17 record in 
2015 — its worst season since 1992. 
Despite the poor record, the pro-
gram’s entire outlook changed.
“It was such a shock in terms of 
how far off we were from being a 
good program,” Knight said. “We 
went from, ‘You come to practice, 
you try to get away with as much 
as you can, then you leave and go 
party’ to ‘Hey, every minute of 
practice is a gift, and you need to 
come out extra, and your number 
one priority needs to be getting 
your teammate better.’ ”
Because players grow up repre-
senting only themselves at tourna-
ments and national draws, most 
struggle when they’re asked to buy 
into a team atmosphere in college.
After a lackluster season, Stein-
berg and Maymi took a creative ap-
proach when they went back to the 
drawing board. The next season, 
they put the burden of leadership 
on everybody’s shoulders by rede-
fining the role of a “captain.” All 11 
players on the roster received the 
title, and the idea made a massive 
difference on the practice court.
“When you practice, you’re not 
practicing for yourself,” Tishman 
said. “You’re focusing on getting 
your teammates better. The idea 
is that if all 11 guys are doing that, 
it’s going to come back around to 
help you. In theory, your tennis 
goes through the roof. And it has 
worked beyond words.”
The mindset took Michigan to new 
heights, as the Wolverines won 21 
matches in 2016 — a season that 
marked the team’s transformation 
from bottom feeder to contender. 
Michigan’s 14-win turnaround set 
a program record, and the entire 
roster wholeheartedly embraced 
Steinberg’s culture. By the end of 
the season, it had become an en-
during staple of the program.
“You support and play for each 
other,” Steinberg said. “It’s some-
thing bigger than yourself. (This 
program) takes the individual-
ity out of tennis, which is hard be-
cause these kids have only ever ex-
perienced playing for themselves. 
We try to create ‘team’ each day. 
I did it for 12 years at Pepperdine, 
and I’ve done it every day here.
“To me, college sports are all about 
pride and passion and playing for 
your school, so you have to show it. 
I tell (the team), ‘Never apologize 
for being passionate about some-
thing in your life.’ We don’t accept 
anything less.” Now, the passion in 
Michigan tennis is more apparent 
than ever.
“Michigan is the only 

program in the country that truly 
preaches team first,” Knight said. 
“Tennis is usually an individual-
istic sport, but college tennis is 
a completely different animal. 
(Michigan’s culture) is unique to 
Steinberg.
“He’s the best coach in the coun-
try.”
***
Just two years after Steinberg’s 
hiring, No. 24 Michigan put its 
growth to the test against sixth-
seeded Wake Forest in the second 
round of the 2016 NCAA Tourna-
ment. The Demon Deacons — who 
entered the match having already 
eclipsed the 30-win milestone — 
were widely expected to cruise 
past the Wolverines. To their sur-
prise, Michigan came out strong, 
riding its team-first philosophy to 
a hard-fought doubles point. Mo-
ments later, the Wolverines took 
fourth singles via retirement. 
Wake Forest eventually battled 
to back to complete the comeback 
on its home court, but Michigan 
boarded its flight home with no 
shortage of takeaways.
“We went right to the end with 
them,” Steinberg said. “After that, 
I could see we were really ready to 
move forward. That was a big turn-
ing point because you could see the 
guys believing they belonged for 
the first time.”
From there, the Wolverines knew 
the future was bright. With the 
infrastructure in place, Steinberg 
began to score big wins on the re-
cruiting trail.
When Steinberg gets on the phone 
with a high school prospect, the 
first topic of discussion is his pro-
gram’s culture. He knows it’s not 
for everyone, and finding the right 
puzzle pieces while recruiting is 
crucial to his team’s success.
After working with a mixture of 
Berque’s recruits and his own, 
Steinberg was finally able to bring 
in personalities that aligned with 
his philosophy. Headlined by blue-
chips Andrew Fenty and Patrick 
Maloney, Steinberg put together 
the nation’s fifth-ranked recruit-
ing class in 2018.
In Knight’s eyes, that’s the key to 
taking the next step.
“The only rebuilding that ever has 
to be done is personnel,” Knight 
said. “The culture is there — with 
that comes not only a good work 
ethic in everything you do, but 
inclusivity. When freshmen come 
in, it’s like a family — whereas be-
fore (Steinberg’s arrival) it was an 
environment of hazing and upper-
classmen being different. Now it’s 
inclusive.”
Though Knight and his classmates 
have graduated, their posters still 
hang in Ann Arbor’s Varsity Ten-
nis Center, a reminder of their 
impact on the program. By buy-
ing in from the start, Knight’s 
class paved the way.
Putting the team first 
takes sacrifice. It takes 
humility. It takes emo-
tion-

al strength. But 
above all else, it can’t be done 
without giving.
Steinberg is no stranger to that. 
After Pepperdine won the national 
championship in 2006, his players 
knocked on Dr. Watson’s door to 
call in a favor.
When the team was invited to the 
White House for a celebration, the 
players went to Watson at Stein-
berg’s request to ask if they could 
fly back two days earlier than 
scheduled. When Watson asked 
why, the players told him they 
wanted to go to an underprivi-
leged side of town and run a day-
long tennis clinic for kids.
Fresh off their championship, the 
Waves coordinated and carried 
out the children’s tennis clinic. 
After spending a humid day on 
makeshift communal courts, the 
team joined the families for din-
ner at a cluster of tattered public 
picnic tables. The parents — who 
could barely afford food for their 
own children — prepared a pot-
luck meal to express their heartfelt 
gratitude.
“They were there all day long en-
couraging those kids,” Watson 
said. “Not to become professional 
tennis players, but to understand 
the value of the sport and know 
how it can build relationships with 
other people.”
The next day, President George W. 
Bush praised the young men for 
giving back.
“That’s what champions do — they 
give back,” Bush said in a presiden-
tial address.
Though Knight will never sit in the 
Oval Office, he reflected on a simi-
lar takeaway.
“This culture teaches giving, and 
through giving you get,” Knight 
said. “The end goal with setting 
up that kind of culture wasn’t just 
to have a good tennis team, it was 
to become better men who lead 
better lives. Now we’re seeing the 
fruits of that success.”
***
Today, Steinberg’s office calendar 
marks February 2019. The Wolver-
ines — fresh off a Sweet 16 appear-
ance last season — are locked and 
loaded with talent throughout 
the roster. The synergy of 
the program’s culture and 
increasingly-talented re-
cruiting classes could 
propel Michigan to the 
same heights Steinberg 
reached at Pepperdine 
sooner rather than 
later.
“Our goal here 
is 
to 
win 
Big Ten 

championships 

and 
national 
championships,” Steinberg said. 
“That’s what Michigan is all about. 
With the support, the facilities, 
and everything else we have here, 
that has to be the goal. It was a big 
part of the allure of this job. The 
academics, the college town, the 
name, the block ‘M’ — it all means 
so much.”
Since the day Steinberg arrived, 
the team-first attitude has grown 
contagious. Once players em-
braced it as fact, wins started to 
come. They kept coming, and they 
haven’t stopped since — the Wol-
verines boast a 66-21 record over 
the last three seasons.
But unlike most of the nation’s top 
programs, Michigan isn’t operat-
ing on a title-or-bust mentality. 
Instead, winning admittedly takes 
a back seat to the program’s phi-
losophy.
“I learned selflessness and how 
rewarding it truly can be,” Knight 
said. “If you give everything, you 
get a million times more than what 
you would’ve gotten and you truly 
get better. That’s something that 
truly applies to life, to relation-
ships, to family, to random people 
on the street.
“Obviously, the goal is to win 
championships. That’s Michigan. 
But the end goal is to become bet-
ter people, and that has certainly 
changed my life.”
After 27 years of coaching, the ten-
nis court has naturally become 
Steinberg’s classroom of life. It 
may lack desks and chairs, but it 
isn’t missing the most important 
component: a teacher devoted to 
his craft.
“That’s the secret: This (culture) 
makes you a better person,” Stein-
berg said. “I feel like that’s the 
most important part of my job 
— helping these kids understand 
life’s not about ‘you’ as much as it’s 
about being unselfish, giving and 
caring about others, whether it be 
on the tennis court or anywhere 
e l s e 
in life.”

Daniel Dash - Daily Sports Writer

