UCF Men's Tennis head coach Bobby Cashman thinks he has found the best fit for an assistant coach of his team in Nick Zieziula.
Zieziula, whose hiring was announced Tuesday, will assist UCF with recruiting, practice organization and individual instruction. He will also be responsible for managing the Knights' video analysis.
"He is the best fit for now for where the program is at and where we need to go," Cashman said of Zieziula. "I think with his background, he is going to help us."
Cashman said that he wanted to a hire a person who has experience as a college athlete and coach. Zieziula is certainly that.
Zieziula spent four years as a student-athlete on the tennis courts of the University at Buffalo. When he concluded his career with the Bulls in 2005, he was the school's all-time leader in both singles wins, with 69, and doubles victories, with 65, at the Division I level. As a senior, he garnered All-Mid-American Conference Second Team honors.
Zieziula went from playing to coaching his alma mater. During that time, he also served as a part-owner of a pro shop and worked as a teaching professional in tennis academies.
"The best fit now is someone who, one, wants to be a head coach and work hard, but also help me elevate and continue to grow the program," Cashman said. "Since [Zieziula] had three years experience of prior coaching, that was important because he's done the practices, he's done the recruiting, he's done a lot of the day-to-day operations.
"And he was a good player. He was all-MAC second team. I wanted someone who had a little bit of both good playing background and good coaching. I just didn't want one."
Zieziula replaces Brandon Stokes, who left UCF in June after he was named head coach of the men's tennis team at Florida Atlantic.
Cashman said that Zieziula's level of preparedness for the job and his ability to handle a number of duties were big pluses.
"He was the most well-prepared for the interviews, too, and that's the bottom line," Cashman said. "Some people were maybe better players in things like world rankings, some people had different qualities, but [Zieziula] possessed a more all-around ability of what I needed as far as filling Brandon's shoes, but maybe even going beyond that and looking to the future."
The Knights went 12-9 in the 2008 season, reaching the semifinals of the Conference USA Championship on April 19. Cashman and Zieziula will try to help the Knights further improve in C-USA when UCF's 2009 season begins in January.
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