1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Women's Tennis Coach German Dalmagro (part 2): February 26th

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Nebraska Women's Tennis Coach German Dalmagro (part 2)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome back, Hermando Magro from Nebraska Women's Tennis. The head coach has joined us, and it has been informative, and we are fully appreciative of him making time. I'm going to ask him a thing that if folks are tennis, players, tennis fans, and they want to support Nebraska women's tennis, how would you recommend they go back? Yeah, I mean, they can support our NIL through 1890. We're kind of starting to use it for recruiting.

You know, we're right now, it's kind of, I want to say, nonexistent, you know, yet, you know, for women's tennis yet on the NIL front, but we're already kind of losing recruits because of it. So I think we can, any, you know, I would be very much appreciative. We can somehow start competing now for recruiting, you know, on the, on the NIL front. It's affecting tennis the last couple of years, and it's starting to make a big impact. So NIL through 1890, our excellence fun is through the Just the Nebraska fun, you know. But right now, I think we're trying to focus a lot on 1890

So we can hopefully, you know, help bring, you know, top talent here to Lincoln. To say this, that it's an international sport, sport and that the players getting big 10 caliber tennis players To Lincoln, Nebraska isn't easy. And especially in a world of NIL, and transfer portal, you have opportunities, but your roster, I just want to go through,

Dominican Republic, Russia, Japan, Argentina, Italy, Bolivia. You're not fishing, you're not grocery shopping locally. So it takes some money and resources to do this sort of thing. And then remember, these folks are getting worldwide attention as well. So to get folks to Link in Nebraska requires some support and some effort. I think Husker Nation, knowing that that's the case, would step up. Well, no, I appreciate it. Yeah, it does take time and effort and resources to trouble.

The biggest thing sometimes, you know, for the top American players right now, I would say most of them, they're getting money through NIL. You know, I was actually talking on the portal, even this past portal, and I tried to recruit the few that were in the portal. they were top Americans and they all needed money they all wanted money which is which is fine i think they were worth the worthy of it and i think they they got some but but we couldn't we couldn't get any of them without that money so we didn't have it at that time and and we're working on it and i think uh some of them you know certainly deserve it so uh i think it's um yeah that's our goal is

to hopefully grow that and we can keep attracting that talent here let's stun some people give me a range of minimum for big 10 talent big 10 caliber talent somebody that will be in your top six players or a doubles player at the university of Nebraska and you're not giving any specifics to anybody that currently is there so that's not necessary but if you're saying to folks here's the range right we know in football we know the range basketball we know the range I don't think we know the range and for men or women's tennis yeah I think it varies. But I would say, for what I hear, players are getting, you know, between 25 to 40 to 50,000 a year per player. Some are getting more. Actually, one player was playing professional

and decided to go to college. And I think she got paid $200,000 to go to ACC school, you know, one of the top schools in the country. Yeah. One player got about $100,000 just to go one semester at a big 12th. school. She was at a one semester left, eligibility, and she decided to say, well, I probably make more money on one semester in college that I could play in pro. Playing pro tennis is a tough, it's a tough world out there in the lower end events, which are high level, but the pay is

not that great. So sometimes some now with NIL and if they're really, really good, they can make just much much money. And you carry eight players. Right now we have eight. our roster number, I think next fall, is going to be at 10 based on that roster size, you know, but then so it will be at the most at 10. Yeah. So if we said, we did math and said, listen, you'd like to have,

Hermann would like to have 10 players who at least can compete on the Big 10 level. We're not talking about crazy numbers. We're talking about a quarter of a million dollars. Yeah, and that's for the whole roster. changes the whole program. Oh, it changes absolutely her program. Sometimes some teams, you know, they have their top two, top three players, make some money.

The rest are on a scholarship, you know, which is amazing already. Right, right. Which is great. So, yeah, sometimes we're, you know, I, yeah, I tried, you know, not to be too, too picky or too demanding on those things. But, yeah, we would love to be somewhere in the park. I even get one player here, you know, at that amount, you know. So we're, yeah, we're battling, you know, on that front. And besides that, we're battling, you know, with the location and weather, too.

But, I mean, I came here because I love Lincoln. I think Nebraska is an amazing place. You know, we love racing, you know, my wife and kids here. And we love it here. And I think this is a place where I came because I know we can win and we can be successful. Obviously, the landscape has changed. Yeah. Which is a, in a few fronts, it's a little more challenging.

But I'm out for any challenge. And I think the goal is to keep growing, keep growing our sport, keep growing our team and just to be the best we can be. To say, and I want to bring in super producer Jake Bach over for a second because I want his take and opinion on this. But Bach, do those numbers surprise you that if you said that you want to bring in two high caliber players, those players will probably cost you anywhere between $20,000 and $30,000, at least for. starter. But does that surprise you? I'm not sure if I'd say surprise, but it is interesting to get to that number and kind of think about, okay, what, you know, what are the across, you know, different sports, what that number is because it certainly is quite different than other sports.

And certainly, and it's just, the Nile world is so interesting altogether, just because, you know, what might be available here might not be available there. So like you said, it's just kind of battling on a couple different fronts. there. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think it's a, you know, there's some programs out there that are, you know, given, you know, 40,000 a semester, an athlete, you know, on their top caliber. I don't some of the best players, you know, in the country. So, yeah, it's not, it's not, I think, here yet, but that's the goal is to try to try to get there and compete not only, you know, the tennis score, recruiting, but also on the NIL from, which is, which is now affecting our sport

pretty heavily. You know, started obviously with football, basketball and all those parties spreading, you know, across a lot of sports. And I think tennis is one of them, you know. And I think it's, yeah, the goal is to, you know, the goal is to, yeah, join and be competitive. You know, I want to compete. I don't like being in this situation. I mean, so I, yeah, I want to be the best we can be. You know, we have, we have everything we need, you know, now we just, I think the missing part might be that just the day and I offer them. you're currently the program sits at 10 and one and as you head into the big 10 conference play right how long is the season how big how deep will the big 10 season run and is there a tournament that that finishes the year yes yeah we're about to start big 10 so we uh 10 and 1 on conference i think we did pretty much the best we could do uh we lost to baylor which i run i think 14 in the country right now and it was still we were competitive it was a close match Now, Big Ten, yeah, we play 13 matches in the Big Ten out of 18.

We have four no plays, and it kind of rotates early. Every school in the Big Ten has women's tennis. And then, yeah, we play through the end of April. Big Ten Championship is the last weekend of April. This year, they changed the form a little bit. It used to be that every team would make it. This year, only 12 out of the 18 make it. So it's a little more challenging.

And who your no plays are makes a big difference, too. So, so our no place this year is, you know, and it's not a seven, you know, we play, we don't play actually a couple of teams that are towards the bottom. And we play every team in the top. So that's a little more challenging, but we're, we're after the challenge. So, yeah. Tell me how to, yeah, I heard a little something in the voice there. Yeah, it is what it is.

You know, we just have to, you just have to play the hand you're dealt with, you know. So, each change, each year it changes. And, you know, we'll, I'm not. I don't complain about it. We don't dwell too much on it. We just have to play whoever is in front of us and do the best we can be. Walk me through this journey that's been your tennis life. When did you determine, first of all, tell folks where home is.

And then when you found out or how you found out that you know what this tennis thing is is going to carry me through my life? Yeah. I was born in Cordoba, Argentina. Born and raised there. My dad actually played tennis. He played competitively. And then, yeah, I grew up there playing there.

And I think I play a little professional, tried to play that. College wasn't in my mind at that time. And then I got injured. And then I had some friends that went through college. And they advised me to kind of go. And I try. And I came here. I play.

I play four years of college. You know, I had a good career. And I kind of make me fall in love with the college format. You know, tennis is such an individual sport that you kind of, you, grow up, everything you do is all about yourself, you know, because it's an individual sport, so you have to take care of yourself, you have to pretty much everything's about yourself. So

changing that mindset to kind of being a team. I love that. I love being a part of a team. I love competing with my teammates and just being, it became a bigger purpose, you know, not just me, just playing for your school, playing for each other. And I think that's kind of why I love the college format. And then, yeah, after that, I just graduated. And then I, I just graduated. And then I started I was going to go into a real world, business world. And then I kind of like, well,

you know what? I was doing well. And I was like, I've been part of the tennis all my life. So I was like, why not stick with it? So I started being an assistant coach. And now I've been, gosh, Division I'm an assistant coach, associate and head coach now for 16 years and been in the US longer than I've been back home. So so I'm more of, you know, been here for over 22 years now. So yeah, no, I love to hear. And I think I, I love what college tennis brings to our sport. And I think it's such a unique opportunity for players to develop, not only personally, but also, you know, as a team, you know, as a growing,

as a player, how to develop in college. You develop a lot, not just, you know, being out there by yourself, playing, traveling. It can get lonely. It's expensive. You know, you have to deal with a lot of ups and downs. I think college just brings, in most of them, you know, it brings the best of them, you know, and I think it helps them grow, helps them be very supportive. So that's the environment we try to create here. But also I think I can tell, you know, players, I talk to former players, and I think they all

have the same kind of like, hey, I love playing for a team. I love how I grew as a person and, you know, who they are today. It's always fascinating that coaches, players who become coaches always have a coach. That's kind of the North Star. You know what? I could do this. I want to do that. I want to do that for people.

Who was that for you? I think growing up, my dad, you know, my dad was my coach. He's still a coach. He actually was here visiting. He's still visiting these last few weeks here. And somebody I can just talk to, you know, about tennis, but in general. And then I have my former college coach, which I consider a friend today. So we still talk all the time.

And I always ask, you know, a few of them for advice or decisions. I make, you know, before I relate those decisions, I kind of like, is this the right thing to do or no, you know? Right. So, yeah, I have those people, but I would say mostly my dad, you know, I kind of learn most of what I know about tennis from him, you know. But then I have a few other coaches that kind of help me see sometimes different points of view or different, you know, different things about the sport. So, yeah. We're going to go to break. We have a caller that wants to get on.

We'll take that call when we come back from the break. and then I'll ask coach to go up and down this roster to let folks know who they will be coming to see. Again, March 7 against Michigan, we want to pack Dylan. And I think that would be kind of the purpose to let them know who they're coming to see. It's going to be a fun final segment here on one-on-one.