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Under Sam Paul's direction, the North Carolina men's tennis program continues to achieve new and more significant milestones every year. 2008 was another banner year for Paul's Tar Heels, as they reached their highest ITA national ranking of eighth en route to their second NCAA Round of 16 appearance in three years. Paul passed his head coaching mentor, Allen Morris, for third on the all-time win list at UNC with his 245th career win on Feb. 26, 2008. Paul also mentored two All-Americas and three All-ACC selections in 2008, two of whom will return to the 2009 squad. After a shaky 4-3 start in 2008, Paul coached his team to a 15-1 finish to the regular season, the best finish Carolina has had in the final 16 matches of its regular season since Don Skakle coached the Tar Heels to an 18-1 overall record in 1977. UNC also recorded a huge upset over the fourth-ranked Baylor Bears at the ITA Team Indoor Championships. The Tar Heels finished second in the ACC regular season standings. UNC also recorded a tie for its fourth highest-ranked road win in school history on March 21, 2008, defeating seventh-ranked Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla. The year before, the Tar Heels traveled to Winston-Salem, N.C. and recorded a victory against seventh-ranked Wake Forest on March 28, 2007. Despite losing four starters to graduation from his 2006 team that reached the NCAA Round of 16, Paul's 2007 team earned its highest ever national ranking at No. 5 for two weeks in the ITA poll and began the season 20-0 for UNC's best start to season since 1965. In the 2006 and 2007, Carolina and Georgia were the last remaining undefeated teams in the country. After guiding his team to a school-record 11 overall ACC wins in 2007, Paul was named the 2007 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year. That was the fifth time overall and fourth time in the last eight years that Paul earned the honor, which is voted on annually by his peers. The Tar Heels have finished among the top three in the final ACC regular season standings in 15 of the 19 years Paul has been the assistant or head coach at UNC. During the 2007 season, Carolina was ranked in the nation's top 10 for six consecutive weeks, a school record. Paul's 2007 team also had 13 wins over 11 different teams that were selected for the NCAA Tournament. Carolina played in the nation's toughest conference, finishing second in the league in the ACC regular season and in the ACC Tournament. Carolina also earned an NCAA first and second host site for the third time in four years. UNC went 9-1 on the road in 2007, with its only loss coming at No. 2 Virginia. Paul's teams have enjoyed consistent success in the Mideast Region. Carolina defeated South Carolina in each season from 2004 through 2007, although the two did not play in 2008. UNC has wins over higher-ranked VCU teams in each season from 2005 through 2007 and beat a 21st-ranked Rams team in 2008. Paul's teams have also defeated Clemson in five of the last six meetings. Under Paul's direction, North Carolina completed a 13-year run as the only school to host the ITA Mideast Region Indoor Championships in the fall of 2006, and hosted them again in the fall of 2008. In the fall of 2008, Paul coached his No. 1 doubles team of Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman to the semifinals of the ITA All-American Championships. Carolina teams under Paul's tutelage have always been distinguished by their sportsmanship and leadership. In 2006, Raian Luchici was named the ITA National Senior Player of the Year. In 2003, Nick Monroe was named the Arthur Ashe Mideast Region Sportsmanship Award winner and a year later Monore received the ITA National Jon Van Nostrand Memorial Award. Paul's 2005 North Carolina team was the first NCAA Division I team to receive the inaugural ITA National Team Sportsmanship Award. With the parity present in men's college tennis, Paul's career achievements at North Carolina are significant. He has 258 career victories at UNC and is the ACC's third active winningest coach with a 91-38 regular season record. He has coached fourteen first-team All-Americas and four players who have achived singles rankings in the top 500 in the world. Paul also served as Don Johnson's traveling coach when he ascended to No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Rankings. Four of Paul's recent All-Americas -- Nick Monroe, Tripp Phillips, Brad Pomeroy and Raian Luchici continue to play on the ATP Tour. A recent addition to the membership of the 250-victory club, Paul begins his 16th year as head coach at North Carolina in 2008-09 and his 20th season at Carolina overall. A five-time Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year selection, four-time intercollegiate Tennis Association Mideast Region Coach of the Year and four-time ITA National Coach of the Year finalist, Paul also begins his 18th overall year as a collegiate head coach with an outstanding 258-121 dual-match record at Carolina. North Carolina's tradition of excellence in men's tennis has continued under Paul, who ranks as the fourth winningest coach in ACC history in dual match wins in his career and is second in UNC history in that category behind only Don Skakle. The 47-year-old native of Lancaster, S.C., has been continuing the winning reputation of UNC men's tennis through his skill as a coach and recruiter since he was named the head coach by UNC Athletic Director John Swofford in April 1993. Twice since the 2000 season, Paul has mentored student-athletes who have won the Patterson Medal as Carolina's outstanding senior student-athlete -- Tripp Phillips in 2000 and Nick Monroe in 2004. Phillips returned to campus two years ago as the assistant coach for the Tar Heels. Paul has also mentored eight first-team All-Americas in his tenure as head coach, including one two-time first-team All America: David Caldwell (two-time All-America), Brint Morrow, Tripp Phillips, Nick Monroe, Raian Luchici, Brad Pomeroy, Taylor Fogleman and Chris Kearney. Paul coached Bryan Jones, Chris Mumford, Ronald Thornqvist and Daryl Wyatt to first-team All-America honors during his assistant coaching years at Carolina from 1989-93 under Allen Morris. In 2006, Paul mentored Raian Luchici, who became the first ITA National Senior Player of the Year in UNC history while playing on one of the best squads in Carolina history. The 2006 team finished the season ranked twelfth in the nation. In that season, the Tar Heels tied what was then the highest ITA ranking in team history of eighth, a rank also achieved by the 1992 squad. The 2006 team went 25-5 in dual matches and tied the 1992 squad's record for the most wins in school history. Joining Luchici as an All-America in 2006 was fellow senior Brad Pomeroy. Six Tar Heels won 20 or more singles matches in that season. While UNC has experienced tremendous success on the court, Tar Heel tennis teams under Coach Paul also excel in the classroom. The UNC men's tennis team had the highest composite grade point average of any men's athletic team at Carolina during the 2003-04 school year and again during the 2004-05 school year. Eight Tar Heel players of the 14 on the squad in 2005-06 were named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll. Eight of the 15 players on the 2006-07 squad were tapped for ACC Academic Honor Roll accolades. Last season, seniors Benjamin Carlotti and Will Plyler were named to the All-ACC Academic team. Carolina currently has an Academic Progress Rate score of 994 out of 1,000, meaning that 99.4 percent of Paul's student-athletes meet academic eligibility standards and remain enrolled in UNC throughout their careers as Tar Heel tennis players. Paul has tutored four players at North Carolina who have been ranked in the Top 500 in the world in men's singles -- Don Johnson (UNC class of '90), David Caldwell (UNC Class of '96), Tripp Phillips (UNC Class of '00) and Nick Monroe (UNC Class of '04). Paul became the only ACC coach to coach a player ranked No. 1 in the world in the ATP men's doubles rankings when he acted as personal coach for UNC alumnus Don Johnson during his magnificent runs in doubles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open during the late 1990s and early years of this decade. Paul coached Johnson to a pair of Grand Slam titles and an appearance on the U.S. Davis Cup Team. Paul took over the reins as head coach in May 1993 after assisting head coach Allen Morris from 1989-1993. In 2002, Paul directed his Tar Heels to a 19-6 dual match record and the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship, the 25th in school history. Carolina has been invited to the NCAA Tournament 16 of the past 17 seasons while Paul has been the assistant or head coach in Chapel Hill; only once in Paul's tenure have the Tar Heels failed to make the NCAA Tournament field in 1999. Under Paul's guidance, the Tar Heels hosted NCAA regionals in 2004, 2006 and 2007. Paul has repeatedly been rewarded for his coaching ability as he was selected the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2007. The 1996 Tar Heels amassed a 21-5 overall record, went undefeated in the ACC regular season at 8-0 and saw five players complete individual 20-win seasons. Senior David Caldwell received ACC Player of the Year honors for the third consecutive season and won the No. 1 singles title for the third straight season -- both league firsts. The 2000 Tar Heels compiled an 18-6 mark, reached the NCAA Tournament regional final and had three players earn ACC flight championship honors. Senior Tripp Phillips earned All-America distinction as he advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals and won the Patterson Medal as UNC's outstanding senior athlete. In 2002, the Tar Heels had one of their best seasons in recent memory as UNC went 19-6 overall against a brutal schedule and won the ACC tournament title for the first time since 1992 with a stirring 4-3 championship match victory over Georgia Tech. In 2004, UNC surprised much of the college tennis world by rising from a No. 50 preseason ranking to share the ACC regular-season championship and earn the No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels finished 23-5 overall and hosted an NCAA regional for the first time since the tournament field expanded to 64. Nick Monroe became the fourth NCAA singles quarterfinalist coach by Paul. After serving as the Director of Tennis and the head men's and women's tennis coaches at the University of Richmond for two years from 1987-89, Paul came to Chapel Hill in September 1989. At the University of Richmond, he won honors as the Colonial Athletic Association's (CAA) Women's Tennis Coach of the Year in both 1988 and 1989. His women went 11-11 in his first year at the helm, finishing third in the CAA. The Spiders improved to 14-7 in 1989, which was good for second place in the CAA. The 1989 team was also ranked in the Mideast region's Top 10. On the men's side, Paul led the Spiders to a 12-9 mark and third-place CAA league finish in his second year while working with a non-scholarship men's program at Richmond. During Paul's four years as the Carolina assistant, UNC was 82-29 overall in dual matches, 26-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season dual matches and 10-2 in ACC Tournament dual matches. In those four years, UNC won ACC Tournament titles in 1990 and 1992, were the ACC Tournament runnersup in 1991 and 1993 and won the conference's regular-season championships in 1991 and 1992. All four teams Paul worked with as an assistant were ranked in the Top 25 in the nation by the ITA. During his tenure, the Tar Heels have also had remarkable success in ITA Grand Slam events. A Carolina player has competed in the national singles indoor competition nine of the past 16 years, most recently Raian Luchici in 2005. In 1993, former UNC men's assistant coach and two-time All-America selection Ronald Thornqvist won the ITA Indoors title in Minneapolis, Minn. In 2004, Geoff Boyd and Brad Pomeroy won the Mideast Region doubles championship and advanced to the quarterfinals of the national indoors. Brad Pomeroy and Raian Luchici reached the finals of the 2005 All-American Championships and the semifinals of the 2005 ITA National Indoors and earned the No. 1 collegiate ranking in doubles in the 2006 preseason in the process. The duo ended the season as All-America selections, ranked No. 6 in the country. This past fall, Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman reached the semifinals of the All-American Championships and the quarterfinals of the ITA Mideast Regional before withdrawing due to injury. A 1983 graduate of Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. wih a Bachelor of Science degree in applied psychology, Paul also played tennis for the Blue Hose for two years. He has a 1981 Associate of Arts degree with a concentration in business from Anderson (S.C.) College, where he played tennis as a freshman and sophomore. In addition to coaching at Richmond, Paul also served as an assistant coach for the tennis teams at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas for one year and at the University of South Carolina for three years. He took the job at USC directly out of college in 1983 and then moved to Trinity for one year. Paul moved to Richmond in 1987 and UNC in 1989 and has remained in Chapel Hill ever since. Paul is also beginning his 20th year as camp director of the annual Carolina Tar Heel Tennis Camps.
Sam Paul Career Highlights
Head Coach Sam Paul
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