Men's Tennis Coach Approaching 400th Win

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- Dr. George Samuel has been involved with many big wins as Barry University's men's tennis coach over the years. Saturday, he has a shot at another.

Samuel is one win away from 400 career victories as the Buccaneers men's tennis coach in 22 years at the school. Couple that with his 18 years as a women's coach at Barry, he has 707 career victories overseeing the tennis programs over a 23-year span.

"It's something for me to be very proud of," Samuel said. "I feel like I've almost taken this program from an infancy stage to where it is now. To look back on it, I'm very proud of it for Barry University. For myself, I still enjoy this tennis program as much as I did the first day as I do today."

Barry's No. 4-ranked men's team plays at No. 1 NAIA Embry-Riddle on Saturday in Daytona Beach. The Buccaneers (2-0) also play at Florida Southern Sunday in Lakeland.

"It's just been a lot of fun for me for the 23 years that I've been here," Samuel said. "It's something that I'll always cherish. I look forward to getting another 400 wins, but it better come up a lot sooner."

Samuel's men's teams have won a national title in 2010, finished runner-up five times, appeared in 19 NCAA tournaments and won eight Sunshine State Conference championships.

"I've never really counted numbers when it comes to how many wins and losses that we have, but what we really did count is which matches really boast the program to keep us in that national ranking," Samuel said. "You can't really worry about how many wins and losses you have. But what's more important is what wins and losses you get that define the program."

Samuel is the winningest coach in both the men's and women's program history at Barry.

"It wouldn't have been possible to accomplish all this success that Barry's had over the years without all the great assistants that I've had to help us get to the level we're at, and achieve the national recognition we have.

"Now you've got me thinking about this. I'll be thinking about it during Saturday's match. Obviously, I'm very excited about it."