Geoff MacDonald has just completed his 26th season as Vanderbilt’s longest serving tennis coach for the Lady Commodores. Now, he is moving in to the role of assistant coach. Aleke Tsoubanos, a former Lady Commodore, and current assistant coach, will take on the role of Head Coach.
When asked about the change Coach MacDonald said:
“I’m not getting any younger, and I realized it was time to allow Aleke to take on the role of head coach. I’m just slowing down a little, and I want to reduce my on court time. Aleke has patiently been waiting. It’s her turn. She can do it all! Her ability on court to get a player through a match is incredible. This roll change has been under discussions for some time. We are a great team. With this move, I feel like I’ve removed a very heavy back pack, and can now go into a more pure coaching role. I enjoy watching development, studying film, and then hitting the practice court, getting players to add to their games. A head coach is like being an architect. You build the program. Thinking strategically, it’s a “Leeks” turn to do that.”
Now what? “It would be great if we could help get juniors more involved in the game. For me, In a nutshell, I have a dream to get more junior tennis opportunities going in Middle Tennessee. It’s time for a rebirth with juniors. Let’s get more older people investing in our youth. I like the NJTL program.”
Note: The National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) network features more than 250 nonprofit youth development organizations that offer free or low-cost tennis and education programming to over 160,000 under-resourced youth each year.
Tennis Nashville will be a great place for you to start, coach.
Geoff MacDonald has had a wonderful career and history of winning. As a college student, he received the honor of ACC Most Valuable Player, along with the Sportsmanship award. As a College coach, he has been named ACC coach of the year, followed by SEC coach of the year 5 times. His very first year at Vanderbilt, he took the Lady Commodores to the NCAA championship tournament for the first time in school history. During the course of his tenure, he consistently raised the bar and achievement level of the team, going from a ranking of 28 to number 2 in the nation in 2018. Along the way, they had several final four appearances, and in 2018 became both SEC and NCAA National Champs.
No matter how you look at it, Geoff MacDonald is a winner!
