Sheila McInerney could (and maybe ought to be) considered the greatest head coach in Sun Devil Athletics history.
In 31 seasons as the head coach of the ASU women's tennis team, McInerney has guided 29 of her teams to the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Tournament.
With the announcement of the Sun Devils' first round match against Arkansas next week in Stillwater, Oklahoma, McInerney has now safely reached 28 consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
It's an accomplishment that, for the most part, has gone and continues to go unnoticed.
Regardless, lack of exposure hasn't been a detriment to McInerney's success at ASU, nor does it ever seem to affect her seemingly-always passionate personality.
Once again, she's led her team to the big dance. For the 28th straight time. I took the opportunity to sit with her and discuss the 2014-15 season, her current squad, and her accomplishment.
The State Press: 28 straight years, you’ve reached the tournament. What’s been the key to that, and how do you do it?
Sheila McInerney: You’ve got to have the players. You need good players to do well, and I think we’ve recruited good kids.
Good players is correct. McInerney's team finished with two singles players ranked in the final ITA singles poll (Desirae Krawczyk – No. 31, Leighann Sahagun – No. 108), and also had two others feature in the poll during the season (Kassidy Jump, Ebony Panoho). The Sun Devils also produced two ranked doubles pairs in the final poll: Krawczyk/Vlad – No. 25, Jump/Smith – No. 49)
SM: I think the kids that have come here seem to get better, which is a good thing. You know, we usually are playing our best tennis by the end of the year, as much as we can. We certainly try to peak for that time of the year.
And, I mean, when you’ve had some success and consistency, the kids coming into the program wanna keep that culture; that winning culture.
With that being said, it’s nice to get into 20 straight tournaments, but we’re aspiring to do better. It’s been 10 years since we’ve reached the Sweet 16. We’ve been to 18 Sweet 16’s. So, while it’s been nice getting into the tournament 28 straight years, you don’t ever take that for granted.
There’s two really good teams this year in Tennessee and Texas, who have been powerhouses, who didn’t get into the tournament. It’s tougher all the time. But, with that being said, we aspire to move on to the Sweet 16’s, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, things like that, and eventually win a national championship.
Like I said, it’s nice to get in, but we certainly aspire to do more than that.
Recruiting players to Tempe, theoretically, is a difficult task, especially when considering the elite schools that are a part of the Pac-12 conference. Still, McInerney has been able to consistently build competitive rosters year-in and year-out.
SP: You talked about how you and your team aspire to do better. How would you characterize the players that you look for? What do you look for in a ‘Sun Devil'?
SM: We traditionally get kids that probably aren’t finished products. You know, maybe they haven’t been recruited by UCLA, USC or Stanford, but I think these kids have a lot of potential — talent, I should say — and maybe it hadn’t been maximized in the juniors. Some of these kids have played and done so well in the juniors. They’ve been playing since they were such a young age, had a lot of success.
With our kids, we sort of recruit the kids that you see have had success, but you also think, ‘Hey, they can still go farther (in their development).’ I think that’s a key.
Somebody like Desirae (Krawczyk) is a perfect example. I mean, she had some good success in the juniors, wasn’t quite the top of the heap in California, but was pretty darn close, and very athletic. She was very passionate (in) the way she plays. These last three years, I think she’s really developed.
Krawczyk defeated the No. 1 singles player in the country, Robin Anderson (UCLA) earlier this season, when the Sun Devils fell to the Bruins, 4-3.
SM: I think Stephanie Vlad was the same. Steph was a local girl, was a good player, had really good results in the juniors, was sort of outside that top tier, but we felt that being from Arizona, she probably didn’t have as much exposure or competition as some of these kids from California or Texas. With daily practice against good players and the competition she’s receiving, playing in the Pac-12, she’s really improved a lot, too.
McInerney has had plenty of talented rosters come through during her time at ASU, but I was curious to see her thoughts concerning her 2014-15 unit, comprised of two seniors, four juniors and three sophomores.
SP: You touched on two of your players from this current group of players. What makes this group stand out from past ones?
SM: I think the kids have improved.
Des is better than she was a year ago; Steph is better than she was a year ago; Kassidy (Jump) is better than she was a year ago; Ebony (Panoho) is better than she was a year ago; certainly, Joanna (Smith) is a lot better than she was a year ago.
Leighann (Sahagun) is sort of rounding into shape from her knee injury, so these next eight days, (we'll see) if we can continue to get her better and playing at a high level. I think Alex (Osborne) is better than she was last year, as well as Gussie (O’Sullivan), too.
I think they’re all improving. That’s key.
SP: What’s something that you’ve really enjoyed about this group of players?
SM: I think this group is taking care of business.
I’ll be honest with you, they’ve surprised me.
Our road schedule was very difficult this year having to play Utah, Colorado, Washington, Washington State and Oregon on the road. Those are difficult road tests, and they came through in all five of those. We beat Northwestern at Northwestern (earlier in the year). … Those are tough, so I think our kids have confidence in themselves.
I think in sports, a lot of times the hardest thing to do is to beat the people you’re “supposed to beat,” and I think we really did a great job of taking care with that.
Now, the next step is to go in there and upset somebody. It’d be nice to be able to beat Arkansas in the first round and — if we do play Oklahoma State — sort of pull a little bit of an upset would be nice.
Last season, the Sun Devils were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the first round after falling to Princeton, 4-3. With an opportunity to exceed last year's result, McInerney will need to ensure her team is up to the task.
SP: How do you improve on last year’s performance in the NCAA Tournament?
SM: We talked about that (as a team).
Princeton was good. We had a tough first round, and it was a match that we sort of had control over and we let slip. I think we’ve handled that situation better this year, particularly at the end. We sort of let that happen against Ohio State and against Kentucky (earlier in the year), but I think playing in Washington and Oregon, up there on the road. It was difficult circumstances. We had a couple of our kids out. I thought our kids really handled it and battled pretty well.
McInerney's presence has been the reason ASU remains amongst the ranks of the relevant in the collegiate tennis sphere.
Her leadership, coupled with her passion and comprehension of the game has enabled her to lead her team to yet another NCAA Tournament with starving eyes for the grand prize of a national championship.
In the midst of the postseason, and with the start of a new season on the way, it's only safe to assume McInerney will continue to have the Sun Devils competing with the likes of the elite as long as she's a part of the picture.
One thing will always be certain: she's cemented her legacy as one of the best to lead a unit at ASU.
Reach the reporter at kajone31@asu.edu or follow @kaelenjones on Twitter.
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