By Daniel Johnson, Staff Writer

Published in print on Jan.21, 2015

A day before Halloween, the UNCG men’s tennis team received some scary news.

Coach Thomas Mozur would resign as  head coach to take a position as Junior Academy Direction for the Raleigh Racquet Club .

With winter break only about a month and a week away, the team had about 40 days before their next series of matches to find a replacement.

Less than two weeks after Mozur’s departure, they found their answer.

The solution (not too far from the campus) came in the form of UNCG women’s tennis coach Jeff Trivette.

You might think that it would be unfair for the athletic department to ask the women’s tennis coach of 15 years to carry the extra load of coaching the men’s team.

However, you would be surprised that he volunteered for the position.

“Running one program would be hard. Two would be twice as hard” he explained. “But I actually volunteered for the job.”

In all his time here as tennis coach for the athletic program, for the UNCG alum, this will not be the first time that the coach would had coached both the men and women’s programs

From 1999 to the 2003, Trivette coached both the men and women teams before former head coach, Thomas Mozur, was hired for the men’s team prior to the 2004-05 season.

With experience with both teams, and now once again leading each squad, Coach Trivette talked about his connection to both programs.

“I always considered both programs as something I had a hand in because I have been there since the beginning” Trivette said.

“It was one of those things where it was a new challenge” Trivette said.

“it is exciting to do something different, and I want to make sure that the men get the attention they deserved.”

During our conversation, coach Trivette discussed how he will try to manage  coaching both teams as well as balancing the responsibilities he will distribute to his staff  for the upcoming season.

On four different occasions, the men and womens’ teams play on the same day (January 31, February 28, March 8, and March 21), and Trivette understands, especially on these days that his assistant coaches will have vital roles for both teams.

Trivette touched upon having to rely on his assistant coaches for those certain days.

“I am going to rely on our associate head coaches Brett Bernstein and Alejandra Guerra with their experience, knowledge, and to do the best job we can” he replied.

“We talked about it with the kids that everyone will have to pitch in and take extra responsibility because we are all in this together.”

In discussing the amount of time he would need to balance between the two teams, Trivette spoke about why he believes he could be spending more time on the men’s side rather than the women’s team.

“I imagine myself with the men side because we have two coaches (Brett and Alejandra) for the women’s team” he said.

“Right now, we are in the process of trying to find someone else to come in and help us so we can have two assistant coaches for the men’s team.”

We also discussed if he believes his coaching style would ever changes between the two teams.

“We will see when we get into it” he replied.

“There are some differences in the way you are going to react between men and women, but I will try to stay the same”.

The final topic we spoke about was if Coach Trivette would want to take the interim tag off his coaching position and become the full time head coach for both the men and women’s team.

Trivette had a clear, articulate, well explained thought regarding his position if he were to become the full time head coach for both programs.

“No”.

Regarding the men’s team, their first match of the spring semester will be in Asheville against UNC-Asheville on January 31.

The Women will compete at home against Coastal Carolina this Sunday at noon.

After the match, the women will travel to Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest on January 31, the first of four matches where the men and women will have matches on the same day.

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