Yesterday, tennis coach Mac Gifford celebrated his birthday. Well, sort of.

Although the tennis team is off until late January, Gifford has no time for partying. He’s been scouting new recruits to replace the four players who will graduate after the spring 2003 season.

During the months leading up to the recruitment deadlines, Gifford attends major tennis tournaments around the United States and Canada — wearing a Syracuse sweatshirt, of course — in search of new talent. Since Wednesday was the deadline for potential recruits to sign their letters of intent, Gifford’s schedule has been even more hectic lately.

‘It’s a mind-blowing process that goes on for probably six months,’ Gifford said. ‘It’s like the country’s a big education mall, and everybody’s got to decide what combo they like.’

This year, SU has been popular among recruits, and Gifford now spends his days responding to recruitment letters, e-mails and phone calls. All the players that graduate after this season are on athletic scholarships, so their departure opens up lots of money to help draw strong players to Syracuse.

And although Gifford’s recruitment efforts rarely extend overseas, international tennis players seem to flock to Syracuse. Currently, only two of the eight active players are from the United States, and more foreign recruits seem to be on the way.

‘We have a lot of international players,’ Gifford said, ‘and that’s just sort of a luck of the draw that has happened over time.’

Most of Syracuse’s foreign recruits seek out Syracuse instead of vice versa, Gifford said. In fact, international word of mouth rescued the team last year.

When Zani Suttle transferred from SU to return home to Roswell, Ga., Norwegian Kristine Bech Holte called on one of her friends from home to fill the position. And it worked — Trine Lise Juliussen transferred to Syracuse, adding another international student to the roster.

Gifford is currently talking with recruits from Germany, Turkey, Croatia and the Czech Republic. He expects that about 40 percent of next year’s squad will be from outside the United States.

As for this season’s Orangewomen, they’re taking advantage of their time off between the fall and spring seasons to catch up on schoolwork.

‘A lot of the tennis in the fall is competitive,’ Gifford said. ‘It’s instructional, it’s learning how to get together as a team. It’s a lot of things, but it’s not necessarily working toward a real, tangible goal.’

But competition heats up in the spring, when the season kicks off with a home match against Colgate on Jan. 29 at 4 p.m.

For now, the Orangewomen, who had begun to grow accustomed to pulling all-nighters before their 6:30 a.m. practices, are focusing solely on academic success.

‘They’re overwhelmed with class,’ Gifford said. ‘You know, they’re sleepwalking. And I’m hoping that they don’t just burn out.’

Published on November 21, 2002 at 12:00 pm