Rice Memories: Robert Searle
4/14/2020 5:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Blog
From culture shock to conference champion
Robert Searle came to Rice in 2002 in time to help spark the Rice men's tennis team to it's most successful run since 1970 as the Owls were a fixture inside the top 20, advanced to their first Sweet 16 since the NCAA switched to the current team championship format in 1977 and captured the WAC title in 2004. Yet for all the individual success he enjoyed, including a clinching win over Texas that set off a memorable celebration on the stadium court at Jake Hess (see photo below) and a win over the top-seed at the NCAA Men's Singles Championship (one of four consecutive appearances in the singles event), his fondest memories of his time at South Main are of the experiences he shared with his teammates and coaches.
It was a combination of Coach Smarr and a strong British influence that encouraged my father and I to venture to Rice for a two-day recruitment trip in April 2002 and the truth is that I knew the moment I arrived that Rice would be the university for me.
I matriculated in August 2002 and I would be lying if I didn't admit to being slightly outside of my comfort zone. Here I was, an 18 year-old Brit arriving to study in Houston, Texas. Suffice to say there were some cultural differences and lots of learning to be done!
It would be fair to say that I would neither survived, nor thrived throughout my four years had it not been for the incredible coaching staff that Rice had. Coach (Ron) Smarr and (assistant coach) Shaheen Ladhani helped me enormously to settle in when I first arrived. Shaheen's was particularly helpful when translating the varied dialect of English that was spoken in Texas. Picture my shock when in the team room before practice one day coach said "OK guys, it's hot out there today, you won't need pants out on court!", I very quickly learnt the difference between English pants and American pants! It was those first few weeks when Coach and Shaheen really helped me settle in and enabled me to have a clear mind to focus on school and the tennis.
It goes without saying that the winning was important, but Coach Smarr, Shaheen and Efe (Ustundag, who followed Ladhani as Smarr's assistant in 2004 before succeeding Smarr 2013) always maintained that the way we handled ourselves by working hard and always doing the right thing was more important. It was ingrained in the lads that this would be skills needed in life post-university in order to succeed. To that extent, recruitment of the right players was imperative and for the entire four years all the lads on the team were brilliant and the fact many of us keep in touch even now is testament to the coaching staffs modus operandi.
Moving on the fun stuff, and some of the best memories:
- A road trip to California where we beat tennis powerhouses California Berkeley and a Stanford
- A road trip to Ann Arbor where we beat Michigan but more memorable was one of our players having some difficulties with his serves. He kept hitting them off the frame to the stands, only for an opposing fan to yell "solid dude, racketball!" The phrase has stuck.
- Winning the conference title at home on the Jake Hess Stadium courts in 2004.
- Beating TCU on a road trip but one of our teammates was a little too vocal with one of their fans which led to a "rendezvous" with the TCU team post match. Luckily for us, Coach Smarr had a good way of diffusing the situation!
- A fall season tournament where some members of the team returned later than planned to the host family and were re-located on the front porch, Efe dealt with the indiscretions back on campus!
- The many sessions of training at Jake Hess where I remember seeing coach Smarr sitting atop different umpires chairs imparting wisdom every so often
- A strong focus from the lads to get as many song titles in to any Rice Thresher article we could. Shaheen would be always win but maintained that the show must go on….
- There was still time for studying and I learned a lot from classes with Dr. Eliot and Dr. Hebl. However, I remember having a class with Dr. Tobin and she would hand me newspaper clippings at the end of class that included my name in them and remind me to keep some spare to send home (luckily for me coach did this already!)
The list could go on and on and I could recite team and individual memories but the overarching memory for me is that as a student-athlete at Rice, I had four of the best years of my life and I'll never forget them.
After graduating, I spent a short time pursing professional tennis. Unfortunately being ranked 850th in the world doesn't make you a living, so I moved in to the financial sector and have spent the past 10 years working in banking. The first nine at Barclays Bank in London as a relationship manager and the last 12 months working for MUFG bank in Sydney.
When I can, I still find the time to play tennis and the global college tennis network is very helpful in facilitating my continued love for smacking the yellow fuzzy ball about.
It was a combination of Coach Smarr and a strong British influence that encouraged my father and I to venture to Rice for a two-day recruitment trip in April 2002 and the truth is that I knew the moment I arrived that Rice would be the university for me.I matriculated in August 2002 and I would be lying if I didn't admit to being slightly outside of my comfort zone. Here I was, an 18 year-old Brit arriving to study in Houston, Texas. Suffice to say there were some cultural differences and lots of learning to be done!
It would be fair to say that I would neither survived, nor thrived throughout my four years had it not been for the incredible coaching staff that Rice had. Coach (Ron) Smarr and (assistant coach) Shaheen Ladhani helped me enormously to settle in when I first arrived. Shaheen's was particularly helpful when translating the varied dialect of English that was spoken in Texas. Picture my shock when in the team room before practice one day coach said "OK guys, it's hot out there today, you won't need pants out on court!", I very quickly learnt the difference between English pants and American pants! It was those first few weeks when Coach and Shaheen really helped me settle in and enabled me to have a clear mind to focus on school and the tennis.
It goes without saying that the winning was important, but Coach Smarr, Shaheen and Efe (Ustundag, who followed Ladhani as Smarr's assistant in 2004 before succeeding Smarr 2013) always maintained that the way we handled ourselves by working hard and always doing the right thing was more important. It was ingrained in the lads that this would be skills needed in life post-university in order to succeed. To that extent, recruitment of the right players was imperative and for the entire four years all the lads on the team were brilliant and the fact many of us keep in touch even now is testament to the coaching staffs modus operandi.
Moving on the fun stuff, and some of the best memories:
- A road trip to California where we beat tennis powerhouses California Berkeley and a Stanford
- A road trip to Ann Arbor where we beat Michigan but more memorable was one of our players having some difficulties with his serves. He kept hitting them off the frame to the stands, only for an opposing fan to yell "solid dude, racketball!" The phrase has stuck.
- Winning the conference title at home on the Jake Hess Stadium courts in 2004.
- Beating TCU on a road trip but one of our teammates was a little too vocal with one of their fans which led to a "rendezvous" with the TCU team post match. Luckily for us, Coach Smarr had a good way of diffusing the situation!
- A fall season tournament where some members of the team returned later than planned to the host family and were re-located on the front porch, Efe dealt with the indiscretions back on campus!
- The many sessions of training at Jake Hess where I remember seeing coach Smarr sitting atop different umpires chairs imparting wisdom every so often
- A strong focus from the lads to get as many song titles in to any Rice Thresher article we could. Shaheen would be always win but maintained that the show must go on….
- There was still time for studying and I learned a lot from classes with Dr. Eliot and Dr. Hebl. However, I remember having a class with Dr. Tobin and she would hand me newspaper clippings at the end of class that included my name in them and remind me to keep some spare to send home (luckily for me coach did this already!)
The list could go on and on and I could recite team and individual memories but the overarching memory for me is that as a student-athlete at Rice, I had four of the best years of my life and I'll never forget them.
After graduating, I spent a short time pursing professional tennis. Unfortunately being ranked 850th in the world doesn't make you a living, so I moved in to the financial sector and have spent the past 10 years working in banking. The first nine at Barclays Bank in London as a relationship manager and the last 12 months working for MUFG bank in Sydney.
When I can, I still find the time to play tennis and the global college tennis network is very helpful in facilitating my continued love for smacking the yellow fuzzy ball about.
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