Veteran coach leads team

Lin Loring is a ladies’ man.
 
Loring has become a legacy in his 32 seasons as the IU women’s tennis coach. With 731 career victories, he is the NCAA’s winningest women’s tennis coach in Division I history. A 326-71 record also makes him the most successful coach in the Big Ten for women’s tennis.

A competitive golfer and runner in high school, Loring developed an interest in tennis after rooming with the No. 1 tennis player at his alma mater, the University of California, Santa Barbara. He began volunteering for the women’s team when he got his first glimpse into the world of coaching collegiate women.

“I was just volunteering my time with the women’s tennis coach,” Loring said. “She became ill, and the athletic department asked me to finish out the year with the team because I was the only one that knew the players.”

Since his introduction to coaching, his players have been named All-American 24 times. Loring is also a five-time Big Ten Coach of the Year and two-time National Coach of the Year.

“Everybody’s coaching style is kind of a collaboration of everything you’ve kind of stolen from everybody else that you’ve worked with,” Loring said. “I was just fortunate enough to work with a bunch of really good people as I was coming up through the ranks.”

Joining Doc Counsilman and Bobby Knight when he first came to IU in 1977, Loring has outlasted them both. He is the only active IU coach with more than 20 years of Hoosier experience.

That experience has led to a string of 104 consecutive Big Ten victories from 1978 to 1985, 16 Big Ten championships and a national championship in 1982.

“As I look back, I don’t think I could have ever had a better coach for my four years in school,” senior Alba Berdala said. “He understands tennis and everytime you’re on the court, he knows what you have to do in order to win.”

In the past four years, Loring has coached Berdala to consecutive Big Ten honors. He has also coached 12 undefeated conference seasons.

“The fact that he’s been around for so many years makes him even better because it just shows how much patience and understanding he has to have to be 30 years around that many girls,” Berdala said. “It’s not an easy job.”

Loring said much of his success comes from his non-tennis background.

“The fact that I didn’t come from a playing background made me want to really study and learn the game,” he said. “Sometimes really good players aren’t good coaches because everything’s come naturally to them. They’ve never really studied the game.”

Studying the game alongside assistant coach Ramiro Azcui for the past 17 years has contributed to the Hoosiers’ and Loring’s success.

The tandem has a 291-164 overall record and is 140-58 in the Big Ten.

“I’ve been able to learn, day by day, how he operates, how he plans his practice and how he runs the team,” Azcui said. “It has been a great experience for myself, to which I enjoy tremendously.”

Along with Azcui, Loring and his team share the IU Varsity Tennis Center with IU men’s coach Randy Bloemendaal and the men’s team.

“We share ideas and help each other out, but he’s certainly been coaching a long time, so he doesn’t need me telling him X’s and O’s,” Loring said.

Loring does not need plays drawn out for him, either: The team has a (12-7, 4-2) record and a No. 38 ranking this season.

“The fact that I’ve won that many means that I’ve had a lot of good people around me, but it means that I’ve just done it longer than a lot of people,” Loring said.

Accomplishing feats of which no other women’s tennis team has been capable, Loring pushes through the season living his life, building his Hoosier legacy.

“At a certain point it’s not my alma mater, but at a certain point it becomes your alma mater,” Loring said. “I’ve been here 32 years. You grow attached to the place.”