Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
Brian Kalbas has climbed the mountain and put his stake in the ground.
The 20-year Carolina women’s tennis coach has added the big one to his team’s four straight ITA indoor national championships in a huge how-sweet-it-is-to-be-a-Tar Heel moment. Here are the latest Kalbas facts.
The top-ranked UNC women finished their 2023 season with a 35-1 record by winning the program’s first NCAA championship and avenging its one loss of the season at N.C. State. The Wolfpack also advanced to the NCAA Final Four in Orlando and reached the championship match against its bitter rival.
This time, the Tar Heels won the doubles point and then, after State had taken the first singles, swept the next three matches to claim the NCAA hardware, 4-1. Tell me, what could be better than beating the Pack in the process?
State had seemingly grabbed the momentum by winning No. 1 singles, but Carolina came back with three straight hotly contested victories by Fiona Crawley in a tie breaker, Carson Tanguilig and Elizabeth Scotty in the 2, 3 and 4 singles to end it. Kalbas becomes the 14th UNC coach to win an NCAA title.
The championship following the ITA four-peat makes Kalbas’ program arguably the best in the country. It was Carolina’s first trip back to the Final Four since 2014 and since then has been dominant on the ITA circuit.
Kalbas has always regarded Carolina as his dream job after coaching at his alma mater Notre Dame and William & Mary, where he was national coach of the year in 1998 and won 79 percent of his matches in Williamsburg. In Chapel Hill, he has done even better by going 532-102 for .818 winning percentage. Over the last 14 years, it has been an incredible .889.
His list of accomplishments is way too long for this post, but go to his bio page to see how many great teams with multiples of great players he has coached. And it doesn’t look like he is slowing down with the $17 million Chewning Tennis Center opening at UNC, a college facility that compares to any in the country. Kalbas is the common denominator in all that.
He already talks openly about being able to recruit high school stars who are good enough to have shots at becoming successful pros. Still, every one of his athletes who stayed four years has left with a degree.
In the intrusive days of NIL and the transfer portal, that is also the job of a college coach.
Featured image via ITA on Twitter
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