1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Q and A with coach Dalmagro: January 22nd, 2026, 11:25am

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Question and Answer with German Dalmagro. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 the ticket. Welcome back from Manzo Magro from Husker Tennis. And in the conversation, in my vision of the ticket and why we do what we do is to have, we want smarter conversation and we want more information. And Bach can vouch for this. the beauty of having a college coach in the building on a daily basis changes the conversation because he just pointed out a thing we were on break and he mentioned so you have your sons play

hockey yeah right and that the lincoln stars exist here in this market in this town these are teenage and pre-college students who leave home wherever home is, come to Lincoln, Nebraska, to live and work the life in the sport that they, of their choice. And there's a system for how they live, where they live, who they live with. The billet house thing, the built home thing in, in amateur hockey is literally the playbook for what's happening. Absolutely. For high school football. And I think that's, I think that's what's happening. It has happened in tennis, the two, you know, at times when parents, you know, if they can't for renting a house, you know, they try to find within the same high school students,

you know, you want to know the brother or sister in your house for a few months, you know, like, and they kind of become brother and sisters, Cassin's type of mentality. And then you host them and then you kind of care about him and you love them and kind of like, you know, and yeah, it happens. And then I'm assuming that's kind of what happens in football too, probably, you know. If you don't want to move the whole family, then that high school athletes might find, you know, a French loop with, you know, and their house. they kind of will help them out throughout the process.

There's so many different ores to put in the water, there's reclassification. So if I decide that, you know what, I won a year or I need to reclassify the plan in a different class. Then there's prep academies. There's charter academies. Then there are in full athletic academies. Yep. I am Jim Bradenton and people talk about, and it's not the only one.

Yeah, offers scholarships, offers, you know, at times, you know, free housing, free training for X amount of time, you know, and depending kind of where you are, where you're ranking when you're rating is, which is kind of similar to a scholarship, you know, at times at times they, you know, that particular athlete might come with a sponsor or not. At times they want, you know, at times they find ways, you know,

they find ways to accommodate and I'm assuming this is a, you know, similar situation, which is great, you know. Well, and the mention of IMG and people say, well, they're not competing for state titles, so equity isn't necessarily important. But IMG knows they're not competing for state titles. They're choosing not to compete for state titles. They're trying to compete on the national level, and there's the difference. Absolutely.

And I think they're ultimately, they're trying to get the best athletes to go develop with them, you know, so where they become professionals, they can see. sign them, you know, and then they become their agents, you know. So they become their agents of these athletes, you know. So, but at the same time, I think it's a, you know, a showcase too, you know, whether they're signed or not signed. You have these athletes, they go travel in different tournaments and they're wearing your clothing and they're, and they, and they, and they, and they, and they ask you where you train, what you travel. And you say, oh, I train at X and YNC Academy or, you know, I'm G or anything. So they kind of like, it's almost like an advertising, you know,

as well besides a representation. So it's a little bit of all, you know. So, and then sometimes, you know, one really good athlete attracts two, you know, and then and then that second or third might be paying more, you know, and then therefore the ones that don't have the ranking, you know, but when I get there, but the families have their means, they might send them then and pay full price, you know, which is kind of like even though the ones that don't pay, you know.

So it's kind of most academies have done that and then they will do that, you know, and assuming that trickles down to not just academy, but maybe high school sports or, you know, or all of their, you know, AAU, you know, for some basketball, football, you know, in tennis, we don't really have that. We just have national, international tournaments and academies. And sometimes you, you know, you let the, you know, IMG has this deal where, you know, they led pro players, you know,

kind of train and do their training blocks for free there, you know, housing and training, which is, which is, which is, great, but also having those pro there attracts other others as well, right? Which other quality. Other quality ads as well. So which is kind of you want to surround yourself with those, you know. As a coach, if somebody has the branding that is that that IMG Academy has earned, it also tells you as a coach that your young person will compete. They'll compete at the higher level. They'll put in the work, the practice work, because if you go to IMG, you're going to practice more. more than high school athletes and some college athletes.

Yeah. It's a change. And so you know that if you get a call from my MG Academy, hey, we got one, you tend to listen differently. Absolutely. Yeah, you do. And I think they kind of go there for their sport mainly, you know? They just don't go there, just say, hey, you know, like, and I'm going to suddenly participate.

You know, they kind of move there, whether it's football, basketball, you know, baseball, tennis, golf, whatever is. They kind of go there to get better. their sport. So it means that they have the law for the sport. It means that they might have the work ethic because they're going to work hard and they're going to, you know, they kind of work around their classes or their, you know, their school because they do a school in there and all that. So they kind of work around where you can almost be like a schedule of a, of a university almost, you know, they go to classes, they go to tutors, they go to practice, they go to

weights, you know, they go to tournament. So they miss weekends and weeks, you know, the time. So they have to make up exams and works, you know, and homework and all that. So they're kind of living in that space where they will live, you know, whether they go to college or now. So you kind of, yeah, you do. You know, obviously they have to have the level. Not everybody that goes there has the level to play, you know, different, you know, universities. But you kind of go with the mentality of like, well, they, you know, they do this because this is who they want to become. and then you try to align a little bit with, you know, our goals as well.

You know, but not only, M.G, there's plenty academies that do similar things, you know, that have the same. And some don't have the means to send them to those academies. And they're just trained locally or at their club or they have like, you know, there's a lot of good coaches everywhere, you know, where there's not always the need to go there. At times there is, at times a reason. And then you just try to, you know, identify all of those. But doesn't, and I don't want to miss the layup in that there's money being moved around

to for this to happen, right? So somebody, and it could be, hey, there's a corporate sponsor that ties into the tennis program, these tennis players to pay for tour, to pay for travel, to pay for meals, etc., all those things. But what it also does is bring more eyes to the sport and more eyes to the talent, not at the top of the list. Listen, quite frankly, I got recruited in college because the coaches came to see other players.

They were coming to recruit the top five players on my squad. And then they just happened to see me twice and went, wait a minute, you're as good as the five. Why don't we offer this guy that we can get? As a coach, you don't care where the talent comes from. A part of your skill set is to identify somebody that fits your program. Yeah. No, absolutely.

Absolutely. And I've been in the space as well. You know, I've been to actually, IMG, all the places is to go for a particular player that everybody is after, you know, and then you go there and you find out some others that are just flying a little under the radar or maybe they're not as, you know, travel as smart to play and they're just as good. And then you kind of, when that player doesn't choose you, and then you kind of, you know, choose all the

maybe that player fits better once you get you know them so I've been there yeah you just try to I don't always say I don't care where they come from Academy country town city you know at all

as long as they're you know they fit kind of what we look for you know we have players from just about everywhere you know and I don't think two are the same that they come from the same type of environment

you know they all come from different environment different families academies and training and, you know, travel experience or less travel experience, you know, and they kind of, you know, you just try to find the best feed and then helps you compete, you know, but also helps you develop them well. I mean, proximity matters only in the sense that if some, if there was a tennis program in Omaha that was producing Division I talent, that it would just make them closer to you. Yeah, absolutely.

Right, like that's like it's easier for you to communicate with them. It's easier for you to scout them. It's that sort of thing. Yes. But is there value in finding a high school program within Lincoln, within Omaha, within the metro that practices and speaks in the same verbiage that you do? I mean, it certainly is helpful. Yeah, it's helpful. And I think, you know, we have some here in Omaha and Lincoln, you know, that we were in touch.

with those coaches and you know we share very similar values and and you know and and what they look for and how develop the players and how will we develop the players and what we look for you know so we're we are you know in touch with them and we we go see them locally and you know and and we go see them everywhere sometimes it's just uh if that can fit you know what we're looking for or the level or how they develop you know and but we're constantly you know hoping that you know Have somebody helped? A lot of players develop, you know, locally, you know, because I think it only helps our program,

but it also helps, you know, the, you know, just the city, you know, their clubs, their academies as well to keep growing and keep developing. And so, yeah, we certainly hope it keeps happening and hope it happens more, you know. You know, in tennis we don't quite have the luxury yet or recruit locally as much. But I hope it becomes something more normal.

Well, you're looking for a dime. timing and rough, right? Probably most likely. I don't remember the last time Nebraska as a state produced a prodigy in women's tennis. I don't know that history. Bach. Am I missing a layup when it comes to somebody being a, I can't think of them. So maybe the text line comes on us. No. But coach, you're looking for that. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. We go watch stays. We go watch, you know, some local tournaments and all that. And sometimes, I think there is some players that they're very close, you know, to kind of what the level is or the Big Ten or the level of nationalists. And then some others are, you know, catching up and some others are getting there, you know. But you don't do you, I don't want to, I don't want to assume.

Do you or do you not have room for a project, a local project? Somebody that's close that understands what Nebraska tennis can be. Maybe like you think along the way, Sam Hoyberg in basketball, maybe didn't check all the initial five-star, four-star boxes, but then willing to get in the program and learn from you and become the example of what a local player can become. I think we do. I think we do. I think each year it kind of depends on what your roster is and kind of what your numbers are. You know, each year I think it changes a little bit of. kind of what our team is and what the layout is,

their roster size, you know, it's not that big. So it's depending on how many players we're adding that particular year. Sometimes we, you know, where we lose them, kind of where in the lineup they play and where, you know, how many projects we can add, you know, to each team, you know, and I think every sport goes through this, you know, to each team that is sometimes there's, you want to develop everybody. I mean, I believe in that, you know, I believe that's one of our, and our foundations in our team is developing,

but sometimes you can only take so many development projects. Sometimes you need to get some of your athletes to come already at a level that you feel like you can compete. It's hard to develop every single athlete at the same time. Now, everybody would think we can develop, but they all develop different times, right? So if you can get a project, but let's say if you have eight players, can you get eight projects all the same time?

then it'll be tough to win at that particular time, right? So you have to feed the pesos in the puzzle, which I think is like some might need to come a little more developed. So maybe they need to come already, rank higher or better, and then you can still develop those. You know, and some others, you might be able to find out that that would be a great fit, that you might be like, hey, that might take a little longer, but I really like this fit, you know?

And then so it's tricky sometimes. You know, sometimes depending who you get, who different recruits you get, then you can maybe go a different direction at times. If you feel like, oh, I go, these pieces that I think will be really helpful at, you know, different spots in the lineup, then I can get this other project, you know, because I can be more flexible. Then at times you're done because you have to go find those first.

So it's a, it's like a lot of moving parts at the same time. But there's always room. I think it's always, you know, I tried to get if we could get somebody from on this area locally, you know, we'll be happy to. I think, and you are the, the. the face of women's tennis in the state of Nebraska. You have that power, and I think

it's going to be an interesting thing. You're looking for an opportunity to kind of lead the game in the right direction. Texer said, we asked about tennis players. Texer mentioned Andy Roddick, but I knew Roddick was born in Omaha, but his family moved to Florida because his older brothers played tennis.

Yeah, and they're muchal Austin, actually. Yeah, yeah. I believe in Austin a lot. You know, it happened to Jack Sock. Jack Sog is a Lincoln guy, you know, and then he went to an academy in Kansas City. You know, he didn't even stay here. And then he developed there and he never went to college. He's actually his older brother play here from the men's team, you know. But, yeah, so it's hard to keep him.

You know, it's hard to keep him. And those are basically the two. That's your other problem, coach. Yeah. That's your other problem is you can help build up tennis so other people can come in. You know, so on the website, we need, you know, we, yeah, we need to keep getting one of those. They'll be great. We'll go to break when we come back. We'll close that. Let him talk about some of his young people because some folks had great weekends here and then eyes forward

to what's next for the program. Hermando Magro, Bach, DP. We'll be right back. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticket FM.com.