1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Women's Tennis Coach German Dalmagro: October 27th, 11:25am

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Nebraska Women's Tennis Coach German DalmagroAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome back one-on-one. Hamon-Domagro, Husker Women's Tennis, breaking it down for us. From the text line, awesome interview. Go Huskers. Yep, 3799, thank you. Big Bird, this feels like a DP moment when, yeah, because I've been open.

Bach will validate and vouch that in changing the face and sound of this radio station. I wanted the listeners to have access to you. It's like Bach is a brilliant guy when it comes to sports. But after a while, Bach can tell you what he can tell you. Bach can't tell you. Bach, how's your first serve? Not true. We can work on that.

We can work on that. Like, that's the mission. Like, we're going to send Bach down and let Herman work on him and try to get his serve together. But inviting Huskers into conversations. with coaches. And that's what the text line is for is your ability to reach out and ask questions to the coach because it's a big part of it. And we're talking about parents. And as a high school coach and being developing players to prepare them, I had the responsibility of making a version of them that I could hand to Herman and protect my image. Like I'm not going to hand you a bad

sandwich. Like I can't, I can't do it because then you're just not going to answer me. Like the next time I call you, if I have something good. But also in that, that I end up spending time coaching parents about the things you can do and the things you cannot do. Because coaches, especially at the power four division one level, they choose talent. And then they decide, is this a parent that I want in my phone texting me every day? Yeah. So what is the advice to parents? What is your thinking and your policy when it comes to dealing with parents in the recruiting game? You know, I am very open about it. I welcome parents on visits because I want them to see kind of who we are, how we do things, you know. And I always tell them what you see is what you get. You know, like I'm pretty transparent. And I tell them what we can do and we cannot do for for their, you know, for their sons and daughters, you know. And I think it's. I think it's important because I don't want a recruit to come here and find out that we're doing things different than what they hurt.

You know, I want them to be, hey, this is exactly what I'm getting. If they don't come here, it's because, you know, we didn't offer something and they don't have, then that's fine. You know, I want them to come here, you know, because they want to be here and because what they heard is kind of what they believe in and they feel that we can develop them here. So I welcome parents and I always tell them, hey, ask me questions. you know, like find out. But I also try to know them, you know, it's because you're right. You know, sometimes, you know, I have had a few experiences

where the pressure doesn't even come from me, you know, as a coach. It comes from the parents that are watching from, you know, from far away on a camera, you know, and they're, sometimes, you know, we have some of our players or former players, you know, on the phone after a match and they're talking hours of the parents and the parents are yelling at them, you know, like, why you didn't do this?

you know that on the core and they might know nothing about tennis sometimes they do sometimes they do but i think it's my advice for parents is uh you know let if you if if your daughters or sons are ready at a college let the coaches coach them and then you just be a parent be a supportive parent love them for who they are and wins and losses you know i always try to tell them is like hey the only the only thing i you know sometimes i get really upset is either a lack of effort or a bad attitude, you know, like I, let the loss be because they just better than you and they executed better than, you know, than you that day, but not because of a bad attitude or lack of effort. That's just the only thing I think sometimes I see, you know, players getting trouble,

but I think parents need to try to separate themselves as much as possible and let the coaches coach and let them just be the parents, just love them but who they are, you know, like without judge, without judgment, you know, whether they win or lose, you know, that day. I think sometimes parents, you know, some, many parents are very loving and caring, you know, but sometimes players don't quite reach their potential is because of the peer pressure they get from home, you know, the rights home, the calls from parents after matches. And sometimes, you know, it's sad to see it. But, you know, I always feel to parents, I'm welcome and I rather than talk to me than talk to

And put that, put that, put that, negative negativity on the I say that. I say, hey, if they come to me, I was like, please talk to me, you know, about the match. And then I can relate that or you can relate some of it, but I don't want your pressure come from you.

You know, that they just, they just want you to be the mom and dad. You know, they don't, you know, they're, you know, so it's important, you know, so yeah. That, that goes on the Mount Rushmore things. There are times when you're, your student, I just want you to be mom or dad. Yeah, absolutely.

So good. And I talk to them about it. And sometimes I just, you know, I try to put the fire out, you know, say, hey, you know, I'm sure they, you know, they care about you. They want you to do the best, which most of the cases are, you know, they want them to do well. But I tell them, it's like, hey, tell your mom and dad to call me, you know. You know, I always said that. So tell, you know, tell you mom and dad you call me. You know, I'll be happy to talk to them about how you're doing, how you're working, you know, what things they do.

And, you know, they only see maybe a match, you know, a week on the. you know, live streaming, right? But they don't see the day-to-day. Maybe they don't see, you know, they don't hear from them in a different angle. So I always welcome the conversations, you know. I'd rather have those tough conversations, but maybe they support their, you know, their daughters more than having them have the pressure come from the parents.

From the text line says, have you had much experience with parent coaches? Now, you just disclosed during the break. Your dad was a coach, right? So having that, but in your dealings with parent coaches, what's the rule? and thinking. You know, I welcome, you know, like I say earlier. You know, I'm always a learner too, you know. So there are plenty good, really good coaches out there.

And I'm really good coaches that have daughters. You know, I'm actually, we just had a visit a few weeks ago for a coach that is a very good coach. It has a really good academy in South Carolina. And then, you know, their daughter came with him, you know. And he was very happily surprised in how we run things or how I do. My philosophy is a coach. and, you know, and I respect him a lot.

So I actually ask him a bunch of things, you know, about that. And we talk about his daughter, kind of what she needs to work on, what she needs to get better, you know, so things that she doesn't want to listen to the dad because it's a coach, right? I experienced that with my dad. You know, I, once I mature enough, I realize how good my dad is, you know. And then sometimes some of these younger, you know, kids go through a percent. You know, they think that the parents don't know much, you know.

And my dad, you know, knows a lot about tennis and they realized. So sometimes we were discussing on like kind of like that communication between being a dad and a coach. And it's a tough balance. I think it's a tough balance. You know, I dealt with it personally. And I was a very hard-headed kid when I was young, you know, and I realized before getting going to college, you know, I realized kind of like, oh, man, you know, I should have just listened to you more when I was 13. 14, you know, but I was fighting more than listening, you know?

And then I realized, and I sometimes I try to relate that to the, to the players that are, their parents, are coaches. And if those coaches are really good, which I think, you know, a lot of them are, and then I was like, hey, just maybe his side is good too, you know, like, listen to it, you know, be open to it, you know. Don't look to just fight all the time, you know. From our different Pete Ferguson says, thank you, coach. Thank you for speaking the truth. love them for who they are. And that's, that's not even niche cool now, right? Because now, it's win now, win now, win now, be the best now, be the best now. And there's a lot of conversation over softness and toughness. I happen to think that today's college athlete is

much tougher than previous ilks of this thing because they have so much more to deal with. I talk about it so many instructions right you know social media NILs or or different you know I think there's a lot more eyes on them that are ever so I think they they feel the pressure too you know and I you know and I always say they's like I want to win too I want to win a lot you know I'm very competitive I don't want to win but but I think you can win you know you can be competitive but you can also be kind you know you can you can be competitive and want to you know challenge your players, I want to work hard, and want to get the best, or we're still treating them the right way, you know,

and still trying to, like, trust the process and let them learn and let them go through it. And obviously, I want to win and I want to do well, but I also want to treat them the right way, you know, and I want them to make sure they're developing and working, and I want them to leave Nebraska, you know, better people, you know, not just better tennis players, but better people, you know, that what they came, you know. So I think it's a combination of things, you know, you treat him, how we develop, how we work.

The things we do daily, you know, I think it's like, yeah, they, they feel the pressure too, you know, I think it's like they win now. They feel it too without you saying it, you know, without you put it much, you know, I try not to talk about wins and losses and, you know, like what I win here, what are we now, I try not to talk to because that's unnecessary pressure they need, you know, it's like, I'll take on that pressure, you know, but we just try to work hard every day, you know, and just like do the right thing, but, you know, be competitive and part of the same time, be kind. You know, like you can treat each other well. You can support each other. You can challenge each other.

But knowing that the end goal is like, always said our end goal is to lift each other up and try to make each other better. You know, so that, I mean, in the full leadership aspect of it, it helps identify the coach and the program. And people misidentify what culture is. Because to me, those philosophies that you talk about, how you do the small things will tell you what the result. The big result is the accumulation of all the small things. Yes. Right. And so your rules of engagement, your rules for who you're seeking to be a part of the program.

And then how you set up practice and conversation. That's culture. We see it on Saturday, but the reality is the culture is what happens before the game. Absolutely. Yeah, it's kind of what we do daily. you know, it's trying to be consistent. You know, I always say this is like, they know what they get in when I'm,

when I show up to practice. You know, I try to be, I try to be consistent in who I am every day, you know, and I think they need to see that, that I'm consistent in my habits, the way I talk to them, you know, I always show up with a smile, no matter how tough they is,

you know, try to just show the smile, how they're doing, you know, and then we can work hard, but I think it's, they need to see a consistent phase every day. And I think somebody, It's not going to judge them as much, but also going to support them, but challenge them. You know, we work hard.

You know, we want to work hard and we, you know, we want to get the best of them. You know, we want to, but I think being consistent is one of them and creating good habits. And then we talk about it a lot for them to create good habits for themselves and trying to work hard and be consistent. Because it doesn't, you know, one of our say is one of our say is right now is win the day, you know, and then stack good days. You know, so how do we put good days together? you know, to build a good foundation. Because our goal as a team is to raise our floor up. So making sure that we, if we're everything, if we're not playing your best,

sometimes you don't, you don't rise up to the occasion as much as you fall down to kind of what your preparation is or your, or your floor is, right? So we're trying to build our floor up to making sure our average is better than normal. I think that's what you do daily. You're going to play, you know, especially in tennis, you know, like you're, you're going to play with your average tennis more days than you play with your best dance. So what your average is is...

That's who you are. That's who you are. That's who you are. This community just literally their skin started to move because when you talk about all the other sports, that is a statement of truth. That you are more your average than the great days or bad days. Absolutely. you know. But it's

how many conversations that we had about other sports that quite frankly, the things you do all the time is who you are. It just is. We'll go to break. One final second but coming up, Hermant-Domewagra. Us your way to Miss Tennis here on one-on-one.