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Robert Dail: A can’t-miss prospect
By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
When you are ranked academically in the top 10 of a class of roughly 250 people, possess a weighted GPA of 4.3 and have just accepted a scholarship to Appalachian State, as is the case for Robert Dail, your options are as limitless as Pete Sampras’ range.
So where does the Washington tennis player see himself in 10 years? Right back where he started.
Dail is a North Carolina teaching fellow which, in essence, is a deal that provides a student with a majority of his college tuition, as long as the student agrees to teach at a public school for four years upon graduation.
The program is a clever one, designed to encourage the state’s top minds from leaving, while persuading them to teach where they are needed most.
Dail is a clever one, too. It was never his plan to go into the private sector. But if someone is willing to pick up the tab for college, well, let’s just say you don’t have to have a 4.3 GPA to know that’s a good deal.
Dail is Pam Pack down to the core and, right after the day he throws his cap into the air and nails his degree/degrees to the wall, he will make a U-turn and head straight towards Washington.
“I’m looking to come right back to Washington,” Dail said. “Ten years from now I will have a masters degree in education, teaching biology at Washington High School, coaching the mens’ tennis team and the mens’ soccer team if they let me.”
There is no reason to think they won’t.
Dail has all the makings of a wonderful teacher, and the right temperament to coach prep sports; he is a can’t-miss prospect.
“Robert works so hard to be the best player he can be; he truly is a leader,” Washington tennis coach Michelle Elks said. “He always is the one that comes out early, gets the balls ready for practice. He is here before I get here, unlocking the shed, setting up for practice and taking on more of an adult role. He is a good kid. If he sees that I have got frustrated, he is the one that will come to me and refocus me.”
Dedication to the sport? Check. Compassion? Check.
Sportsmanship?
“First of all, and most importantly, he is an excellent sport,” Elks said. “He rarely shows any frustration ever. He is continuously complimenting his opponent on his shots. But at the same time, he is a competitor and wants to win; he will always fight. Even when he is behind, you can’t tell he is behind because he is constantly fighting and staying in the match.”
Check.
Being a good athlete and a brilliant student, it might seem as if everything comes easy to Dail, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that Dail works extremely hard for everything he has achieved, and doesn’t always succeed, which is a good thing.
In the classroom, Dail smashes tests the way Arthur Ashe smashed backhands in his prime. But on the tennis court, Dail is more like a Bruce Chen, showing flashes of brilliance mixed with inconsistent play.
Last season Dail was a reserve on the Pam Pack’s tennis roster, and didn’t see significant playing time until sixth-seed Trey Moore was injured. This season, Dail was thrust into the two spot, forced to play opponents whose skills are much more refined.
Dail knew going into this season that he might be a bit out-matched, but looked forward to the challenge and has handled the adversity.
“I knew that I had a problem in singles; I would get a lead and fall apart. So my goal this year was to conquer the mental (aspect of the game),” Dail said. “If it meant losing more games than it did winning, that was OK with me because I was a winner either way because I conquered that mental lapse. Today (Thursday against New Bern) I lost 0-6, 3-6, but there wasn’t a single time I got mad, or said a bad word, or threw the racket. I had a smile of my face the whole time. On paper I lost today, but in my mind I won because I conquered that mental, and never got mad at anything.”
The fact that he isn’t the most dominating tennis player on the team is his biggest flaw and his greatest strength. It’s what will ultimately make him a great teacher and coach.
It’s what makes him able to relate to the average person. The super star athlete can’t coach because everything he did came easy to him. See Isiah Thomas and Ted Williams.
If Dail were to excel at everything, how could he relate to the frustrated student who can’t grasp biology as fast as the others?
Ability to connect with every athlete on the roster? Check.
What makes Dail the ideal teacher and coach is that he puts things in the proper perspective. The classroom comes first, then sports.
“It is amazing to me when you see athletes that are real good at athletics and, when they get in the classroom, they flounder, or they trip and they can’t get to where they need to be academic-wise. Then they get pulled out of sports,” Dail said. “That’s a horrible way to get pulled out of something that you love. Victory in the classroom has to come before athletics.”
Reality? Check.
So where does the Washington tennis player see himself in 10 years? Right back where he started.
Dail is a North Carolina teaching fellow which, in essence, is a deal that provides a student with a majority of his college tuition, as long as the student agrees to teach at a public school for four years upon graduation.
The program is a clever one, designed to encourage the state’s top minds from leaving, while persuading them to teach where they are needed most.
Dail is a clever one, too. It was never his plan to go into the private sector. But if someone is willing to pick up the tab for college, well, let’s just say you don’t have to have a 4.3 GPA to know that’s a good deal.
Dail is Pam Pack down to the core and, right after the day he throws his cap into the air and nails his degree/degrees to the wall, he will make a U-turn and head straight towards Washington.
“I’m looking to come right back to Washington,” Dail said. “Ten years from now I will have a masters degree in education, teaching biology at Washington High School, coaching the mens’ tennis team and the mens’ soccer team if they let me.”
There is no reason to think they won’t.
Dail has all the makings of a wonderful teacher, and the right temperament to coach prep sports; he is a can’t-miss prospect.
“Robert works so hard to be the best player he can be; he truly is a leader,” Washington tennis coach Michelle Elks said. “He always is the one that comes out early, gets the balls ready for practice. He is here before I get here, unlocking the shed, setting up for practice and taking on more of an adult role. He is a good kid. If he sees that I have got frustrated, he is the one that will come to me and refocus me.”
Dedication to the sport? Check. Compassion? Check.
Sportsmanship?
“First of all, and most importantly, he is an excellent sport,” Elks said. “He rarely shows any frustration ever. He is continuously complimenting his opponent on his shots. But at the same time, he is a competitor and wants to win; he will always fight. Even when he is behind, you can’t tell he is behind because he is constantly fighting and staying in the match.”
Check.
Being a good athlete and a brilliant student, it might seem as if everything comes easy to Dail, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that Dail works extremely hard for everything he has achieved, and doesn’t always succeed, which is a good thing.
In the classroom, Dail smashes tests the way Arthur Ashe smashed backhands in his prime. But on the tennis court, Dail is more like a Bruce Chen, showing flashes of brilliance mixed with inconsistent play.
Last season Dail was a reserve on the Pam Pack’s tennis roster, and didn’t see significant playing time until sixth-seed Trey Moore was injured. This season, Dail was thrust into the two spot, forced to play opponents whose skills are much more refined.
Dail knew going into this season that he might be a bit out-matched, but looked forward to the challenge and has handled the adversity.
“I knew that I had a problem in singles; I would get a lead and fall apart. So my goal this year was to conquer the mental (aspect of the game),” Dail said. “If it meant losing more games than it did winning, that was OK with me because I was a winner either way because I conquered that mental lapse. Today (Thursday against New Bern) I lost 0-6, 3-6, but there wasn’t a single time I got mad, or said a bad word, or threw the racket. I had a smile of my face the whole time. On paper I lost today, but in my mind I won because I conquered that mental, and never got mad at anything.”
The fact that he isn’t the most dominating tennis player on the team is his biggest flaw and his greatest strength. It’s what will ultimately make him a great teacher and coach.
It’s what makes him able to relate to the average person. The super star athlete can’t coach because everything he did came easy to him. See Isiah Thomas and Ted Williams.
If Dail were to excel at everything, how could he relate to the frustrated student who can’t grasp biology as fast as the others?
Ability to connect with every athlete on the roster? Check.
What makes Dail the ideal teacher and coach is that he puts things in the proper perspective. The classroom comes first, then sports.
“It is amazing to me when you see athletes that are real good at athletics and, when they get in the classroom, they flounder, or they trip and they can’t get to where they need to be academic-wise. Then they get pulled out of sports,” Dail said. “That’s a horrible way to get pulled out of something that you love. Victory in the classroom has to come before athletics.”
Reality? Check.
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