1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - German Dalmagro - Importance of facilities in college tennis - April 20, 2026 - 11:00am

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

German Dalmagro - Importance of facilities in college tennisAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-the-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. It is Monday. Lincoln, Nebraska, you and Mother Nature decided to get along. It is gorgeous. Gorgeous.

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We flip the schedule a little bit this week because there are things going on. Normally, you know, it's a Thursday visit today. He's got a little something going on on Thursday. So coach Hermann de Morrow, Husker Women's Tennis, joins us on a Monday just to set the table because, sir, it's a busy week. I will ask coach to join me in asking Bach, how the heck are you? Hey, I'm doing pretty good. Yeah, yeah, doing well.

Russell Media was this weekend, so I had a lot of fun watching that. And of course, the Huskers baseball and softball did well. Basketball added some. So it was just a lot of, a lot of news. Yeah, there's a lot of Husker winning going on this weekend. That's always helpful. And of course, today's poll for softball had the Huskers at one. It's amazing, right?

Yeah, had them at one. Of course, the folks from the SEC weren't real happy about it. But, Ted's, yeah, yeah, they are just not happy about most things. Coach, how the heck are you? How are you? I'm doing okay. I'm doing well. You know, a tough weekend for us.

Besides, you know, all the success from some other teams, you know, we had a tough weekend, actually. Coming off, you know, a really good week, you know, beating Iowa. You know, first win in actually a couple of years. So that was great. Yeah. And then we went to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and, you know, took two losses, two tough losses. Wisconsin is really good. They're a top 25 team.

They're very good. And we're actually competed really well. We were close. Tough place to place. You know, indoors at their place. Courts are really fast. They're very split up. So you can't know.

You don't know what's going on. A few other courts. So they did a little different environment. And then went on Sunday and Minnesota. They haven't been doing great in conference, but they've been really close. And then we had a sickness. Our best player was out sick that day. And so without her.

and everybody had to step up, and we just didn't play our best in a few spots, and, you know, we talk a loss. So, disappointed, you know, no playing our best kind of when our best is needed. But can't dwell too much on it. You know, we leave tomorrow. So we came back last night and we leave tomorrow again.

So, yeah, we just can't overthink about it too much and, you know, got to be better next time. And now it's postseason. That's such a big part of the stories that we try to, explain to folks and try to tell that it is not just analytics. It's not just matchups. It's a whole an accumulation of a whole lot of things behind the scenes. We forget. Most cases, these are teenagers, young 20s, and there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes away from the court. By the time you get to the court, there's a whole list of things that have impacted performance. You just mentioned

the thing that we don't know what players are feeling 100%. And I'll ask you, how often does that actually happen? It happens, you know, it has happened actually a few times already for us this year. We had another instant early in the year, non-conference match that we won, you know, another player was out sick. And yeah, in tennis, you know, we don't, yeah, you don't, you know, you don't have a lot of wiggle room. And have you played your lineup, you know, you play by order of strength.

But when you take somebody out, especially towards the top, everybody has to move up. technically are playing, you know, a spot ahead of what they usually play. So that plays a little bit into that. And then, yeah, and the facilities are, you know, just very different too. You know, every place is completely different. Slower courts, faster courts, very dark, very bright. But, you know, we can't always put excuse on that. We just have to adapt, you know.

Actually, something funny, I don't know, funny, but what happened in Wisconsin, we were in a tornado watch before the match started. We started doubles with a tornado watch. morning and there was a sirens going off. Right. As we were playing doubles and we had to suspend the match and go to a locker room because now their safety place and we had to suspend the match for about half an hour because there was a tornado warning in Madison Friday evening.

And then half an hour later, we go warm up a little more and we continue the match. So it was, you know, it's one of those that, but, you know, I followed it. And then it's, this is what happens because if you, especially if you're following on stats. right. So if you're not watching it. But then it paused. Like the scoring didn't update. So I kept updating the computer to go what's going on. And then you go to the video and there's nobody at the court. And I just went, okay, what's happening here? Yeah. You think indoors, you know, be like, oh, nothing happens, right? But yeah, we were in a tornado warning and we'll have to stop the match. There were sirens going off. And they told us to get off the car and go to the locker room and

and wait. So we did that and then came back and yeah we have chances you know they're a really good team and but we have chances we competed well and you kind of came down to pretty much the last match on so you know it is what is you know and then yeah Sunday was just not the best day for us but you know it happens you know we've been playing really good tennis so we don't want to overlook you know how well we've been playing as a team you know just for, I would say, a bad loss, even though, you know, like, every match is tough. You know, everybody's good enough, you know,

that you can beat everybody, you know? So, but, yeah, just got to move on. You were telling, you were telling us before we went live about, you know, the NTWA tournament and what this week looks like for you. You have some particulars about this season and whether where you think you stand as far as the NTCW tournament. Yeah, yeah.

I think before this weekend we were kind of like, you know, day to day change of being like the kind of one of the last teams in, got the first team out and kind of this. So this weekend didn't help us. So now we're kind of like in the first four out, you know, whether second out, you know, third out, you know, one of those first. So we're right there. A couple of results that, you know, for different conferences, one or two didn't help us because put a different team in, you know, that wasn't supposed to be in, that won their conference. conference and an extra bubble team out. Yeah. So that didn't help.

But then now it's kind of up to us. You know, we play Illinois, which they're a really good team on Thursday. And then if we beat them, we're kind of at the mercy of kind of this election, you know, to whether we put a scene or not, you know. But it's been, I mean, it's been a really good year. You know, last year we were way farther away from from this position. So I think we made a, you know, a lot of progress, you know, be quite a fair. few ranked teams. We have seven wins in the Big Ten Conference, which is, which is great. You know, we're tied for eight, you know, and last year we were 14th, you know, so we make tremendous progress.

And we could easily finish, you know, five or six. And we have, you know, five, almost six teams in the top 25, you know, so it's really good progress. So now we're kind of in the bubble. We play Thursday and, you know, we'll see how we can do. And then win a little, we win that. And then we play the one seat always stay, you know, other plays. But yeah, if we lose, we kind of are the mercy of this election. But I think we might be, you know, maybe a far stretch. But if we win, you know, we certainly be in. But it's up to the selection then.

15 and 8 is the regular season, 7 and 6 in the Big 10. If we said before the season, this is where you sit, 15 and 8, 7 and 6, 7 wins in the Big 10. How would you feel? I feel good, but not great. Right. You know, because I felt like, you know, we have had quite a few injuries throughout the year, which I felt like a few more matches could have gone our way. If we had a full match, a full roster, you know, I think we basically only play with a full lineup,

two or three matches the whole year. So I think I will say it was good, you know, but I think we had a little more, you know, we can do a little more, which is that's how I felt, you know, right now too. I think we could have maybe have one or two more wins. But also, you know, in Heinz, you can also have one or two more losses that we won, that we just, you know, we just happen to win. And there's close matches that go either way, right? So I think it's a good year.

I think it's a really good year. I don't get satisfied that easy. So I feel like it's good. But I will always argue it's like we could do a little more, you know? Of the 13 big 10 matches, how many of those do you think you were full-stri? Oh, gosh. Maybe one. Right. Like that's a number. Like when you say that you have to.

Yeah. Yeah, maybe one or two, I would say, you know, because we had somebody that could play singles and doubles, but maybe we're in 100%. So we have to choose one or the other. Yeah. So we had that caught a few matches, especially the last four or five. So I will say that, yeah, you're full strength, but, you know, like you could have somebody else play both that you think that. that they could play both so that can play a little bit with that. So at times we have to choose, you know, kind of like pick your battles, you know, a little bit where they play and how well they're going to be rested or healthy for back-to-back matches.

So, yeah, I would say maybe one, you know, too. So it's been, you know, so I'm very proud of the team. I think we're, you know, a lot of players have improved a lot. And it's been a really good year, a really good regular season. It's just, you know, maybe a little sour taste on the last match, you know, which is a tough match you play. I was actually just talking to another big 10 coach on the phone and and they were like, man, it's a tough spot to be, you know, a team that, you know, hasn't won, but they've been very close and kind of their senior day and a couple of players, you know,

and then you have your best player out and kind of like, you know, when the start's aligned for them and you're against the wall and we're still competed well. We just didn't play well in a couple of spots that I felt like we have played really well most of the year. So, it's just the way it goes sometimes, you know. And you say the thing out loud that we forget about coaches, but I often try to remember to ask. It's hard to be satisfied. As a coach, it's hard because you see the potential,

you see the things that you've worked on, you see the advancement, you see the development, but then the result, the game result, tends to be how the public views it. Absolutely. But you know exactly. how well your players are playing in spite of the result. Yeah. Yeah, exactly right.

And I think it's one of those that sometimes, you know, because you play individual spots and sometimes you kind of have to have like players playing well aligned at the same time to say to win four points. You need to win either the singles or the doubles point and plus three singles. So sometimes you need you need to kind of work to thinking that your players would align playing well at the same time. And we have had that actually really well, you know. and then maybe just specifically, let's say on Sunday,

we just have like a couple players, well, you take your one out that she's been playing good tennis, and then everybody's from about, but actually the ones that play one and two, they used to play two and three, they had a great day. They won their match. And then others,

so you think they've been really good. They're just like, a couple players just didn't have their best day. And their opponent is actually one of them, it's funny, one of their teammates was screaming to hers. Like, you're playing the match of your life. You know,

so she was literally playing the, much of her life and then we're in the third set. Yeah. So it's kind of one of those things that things go really well for them for a couple of spots and then things just didn't quite work as well for us. And it's like, yeah, you kind of hope that if you are not having a great day, that doesn't happen in three or four courts, you know. It just happened to happen for us in three cores yesterday that just wasn't our best.

And we're still close. We're still competing. We're still out there. But we're just getting quite good at done. You mentioned facility a couple of times. And in the Big Ten, there is some diversity and variance in the facilities. How much do, if I said your favorite facilities to go to versus we'll leave the not favorites alone. What are the favorite places to go?

Yeah. Sometimes you go where you think it's like there's less. elements. Right. So if you go to some places where it's like, it's like, it really dark or the courts are completely different to yours. And then it takes time to adapt or it's the place really loud or echoes. Sometimes you just kind of like, it just takes longer to adapt, you know, and then,

and then your opponents are obviously their home court. So, um, actually Ohio State plays pretty fair. So I think they'll be fine, you know, like Michigan, you know, plays fair. Minnesota is like kind of slow and it's loud and echoes. So it's like actually hard to play to play. Wisconsin is a tough place to play. Just because their course are faster. So it takes longer.

Is it a bigger space? It's not bigger. It's actually like an old facility that the course are spread out. So you have three in one side and you don't know what's going on on the other three because he's through like a tarp and, you know, so you have no idea what's going on. So it's hard to like feel like you're supporting each other. You're running back and forth. You basically are.

I, I, I, there's two players that you know, one. watch one point for their match because I was with all the players, you know. So, so you have literally no idea how they did, you know, you just go by the score line, you know, and you had to talk to them later. How was it, you know? How much film study do you do that in a case like that to try to fix the things that are there, you know? Yeah, I just try to watch a match.

They watch her match and you try to talk about it and just kind of see, you know. It's, it's kind of bizarre a little bit, you know, but that's, that's tennis, you know, and that's kind of how we, how we are, you know. and facilities are different, different setups, and you just kind of at times don't know what's going on, you know. So it's an adjustment, but we have to adapt. And, you know, we like to say everybody's in the same boat type of deal. So, you know, we can't.

We're not the only ones. Yeah, I'm fascinated. The sound of, I mean, that's the first thing when you go to your first college tennis match is the sound. And the sounds are different indoors now. Oh, yeah, yeah. And the lay fan doesn't think about the sound being a vital part of it. But the first thing you notice is the sound of the ball coming off the racket. And then the conversations that go on.

But the sound of the racket is also, it's kind of like in baseball. The crack of the bat tells you a lot. Yeah. And the sounds of the game matter. The fact that it plays out indoors and out, do you prefer to be outdoors? I mean, I think we have a really good team for outdoor tennis, you know, And we have proven already, you know. So I always told our team, you know, I like to play outside because we can handle the elements because we're a tough team.

And, you know, we adapt to those things well. But yeah, it makes a big difference, you know, like some places echoes way more than others. Actually, our play plays great. Very fair. Our place here. Place almost too nice, you know. Well, the outside is spectacular. Yeah.

Yeah, I know. So our facility is great. doesn't create a huge home corner advantage, to be honest, because they play really nice. Some facilities are, you know, Maryland, they play indoors at a club that is like a bubble. And it's like tough in college park. You know, it's really hard to play there.

You know, Penn State has like four indoors only, and it's like really fast and a small little place right on campus, but they only have four indoors. How is that? When they play indoors, you have to play four matches, and the five and six they go on as. first score opens. No. Yeah. Yeah. So that's like action they're used to that, you know? And then when you go in there, you're like, wait,

what? What are we? Yeah. For all the money that's at Penn State, you're telling me that that's what they're doing? Yeah. Well, they're supposed to build a newer six into facility. And I think it was all approved. And then all that Joe Paterno situation happened. Yeah. And then they put a pause on that. Well, but they just okay, 700 million in a, football, you take some nickels and dimes, bro. Yeah. They did not put it on tennis. So actually, I mean, you ask the coach and they're like, you know, and sometimes they're like, well, I kind of prefer to this way because it's a huge.

It's an advantage. It's an advantage for them. So they kind of like, you know, they're kind of like, oh, almost leave it as this because, you know, if we make it too nice, then it doesn't create an advantage. See, it's like, you know, Kentucky is the same way. Kentucky has our four indoors. And they keep talking about building. and then I asked the women's coaching,

like, oh, we actually win more matches indoors because of our situation than otherwise. It's kind of like, yeah, but it's not idea, but, you know, it is what it is. That is so lame. I'm sorry, Penn State. What are y'all doing? What are you?

That's brutal. That's our sport, you know, it's kind of, sometimes you get what you get and you just have to. Okay, so that walks me into, the space where we had questions last week with announcements of stadium, money, and that sort of thing. And I'll allow you to protect yourself

as much as you need to protect yourself. How much does the facility help or hinder when it comes to recruiting? I think it helps. No, it definitely helps. I think it's, you know, I put it this way. I talk to quite a few coaches around the country and, you know, like friends,

and we talk about it. It's like sometimes facility helps depending where you are located. Sometimes it hurts depending where you're located. You know, location, academic standards and, you know, and weather locations, sometimes they're like, well, if you have the weather and location, then like, recruits will be like, well, they overlook facility. If you don't have the location in weather, then facility becomes a little more important. And then it's like, depending kind of where you go and where you're located,

what your school name is, it's like, it's the more recruitment. crews will like be okay with that you know we have great facilities so you try to use it as an advantage because you know we don't have the weather and location you know for tennis specifically right so so we need to have you know just to even remain there you know and sometimes we still lose recruits to weather and location even less facilities just because of either this the name of school or location you know or weather so it's like uh so it definitely helps but it's uh it's not it's not just like, oh, if you have facilities, you automatically get him, you know, like, you still have to, you know, convince him of, like, you know, of your development or, or what you

offer, you know, if they're very academic driven or if they're very location driven, you know, because we got a ton of recruits. Sometimes one of the first questions that, you know, they ask, you know, it's like, how's the weather and, you know, I like to play outside when it's sunny, you're like, that's what they tell you, like nine out of ten told you that, you know, I always want to play more outdoor tennis and indoors. And I was like, you know, sometimes like, so you bottle those automatically, like right away, you know. And then you kind of like can stir in different directions once you start explaining kind of more how it works. You know, like you can just be just as good indoors as outside, you know.

And you can actually play both. And, you know, you have to learn how to play indoor outside in the wind and not the wind. You know, not just always sunny. And, you know, like, yeah, if you go to selling call, you know, it's always. sunny and, you know, it rains, you know, four times a year. And yeah, that's right. But then once you get out of those elements and go play indoors or go play, you know, high altitude or a little windy, then they kind of feel like out of, you know, a fish out of water. So it's kind of like you try to explain all the pros and cons from both. And then, you know, and hopefully you build it off a

connection that, you know, they overlook some of the negatives, right? We're going to, we're going to take a break there because that leads that that that's the string that leads the yarn that leads to the sweater that in recruiting I would like to ask you when we come back I'll give you time to think about it but when we come back I want to ask what do the athletes tell you are the most important things when it comes to recruiting and give us a pecking order give us the top five the things that you know that when you're recruiting this athlete your chances improve or decline based on these five things, right? So we'll get that from Coach that my girl when we come back from one on month.