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Hilt-Costello Courts Success
by Doug Krikorian Long Beach Press-Telegram
May 10, 2007
It is late on a sweltering afternoon on the Long Beach State campus,
and the coach is out there on the court working with her players, instructing
them, encouraging them, prodding them, hitting tennis balls at them in
a repetitive ritual calculated to sharpen their skills.
There is no one else present - no stragglers, or boosters, or any of the
usual interlopers who are commonly present at other athletic practices
- and the workout has a no-nonsense air about it.
"What I like most about coaching is what happens here on the court,"
says Jenny Hilt-Costello after the three-hour session concludes, and what
has happened on the court since she became the 49ers' head tennis coach
10 years ago has been a lot of success including another Big West Conference
championship - the team's fourth straight and fifth in six years - that
qualified Hilt-Costello's troops for a NCAA Regional opener Saturday morning
in Fresno against Pepperdine.
She pauses a moment with a slight smile, and then elaborates.
"It's a day-to-day grind, but it's on the court where the players
work on their weaknesses and improve their game," she says. "And
then you see in their matches execute the stuff they've been working on.
There's nothing more satisfying to a coach than seeing players get better
and better as a result of hard work."
In dramatic contrast to their brethren in basketball and baseball and
women's volleyball and even women's soccer, the 49ers tennis team has
a visibility about as modest as its annual budget, which is a minuscule
$30,000.
But that hasn't kept Jenny Hilt-Costello from building such a respected
program - she has had seven straight winning seasons - that the president
of Long Beach State, Dr. F. King Alexander, said the other day, "Jenny
ranks right there among the best coaches we have at our school."
That's quite a complement, since the 49ers have such nationally renowned
coaches as Brian Gimmillaro, Mike Weathers, Dan Monson and Mauricio Ingrassia,
as well as several other solid ones.
It's not an easy assignment for Hilt-Costello to continually field strong
teams, since so many of the exceptional high school tennis players are
scooped up by the major athletic schools.
She has overcome such a disadvantage by recruiting internationally, and
her team has a United Nations look to it, as four of her performers, Big
West Player of the Year Hannah Grady, Rachael Porsz, Jessica Weeks and
Katy Williams are from England, Stephanie Bengson is from Australia, Denise
Liebschner is from Germany, and Emmanuelle Tabatruong is from France.
The only American, Sandra Rocha, is from Pomona, but she won't face Pepperdine,
as she had shoulder surgery this week. She will be replaced in the lineup
by Liebschner, an untested freshman from Dresden.
Obviously, the loss of Rocha will make it even more difficult to beat
a Wave team that already holds a 5-2 win over the 49ers this season, but
Jenny Hilt-Costello remains undaunted.
"If we play well, we can win," she says.
Jenny Hilt-Costello - 34, one-time UCLA tennis star, wife of CIF marketing
whiz John Costello, Sacramento native, engaging person - is accustomed
to challenges.
She overcame one herself when she was diagnosed with endometrical cancer
in early 2004, undergoing major surgery and chemotherapy treatment.
"My husband figured it out that I missed only 10 days with the tennis
team," says Hilt-Costello, who has been cancer-free now for more
than three years.
It is such toughness and resourcefulness that Hilt-Costello instills into
her team that the past two seasons has been led by Grady, a 5-6 sophomore
from Coventry who was told after last season that she could even be more
dominant if she were in better shape.
Well, Ms. Grady took such advice from Hilt-Costello and her long-time
loyal assistant, Hally Cohen, too seriously - and wound up returning to
school 30 pounds lighter.
"That was a little surprising to us," says Hilt-Costello.
Such a drastic weight loss might have been the reason Grady started the
season off slowly, but she has reverted to peak form in recent weeks,
winning her last six matches and 12 of 15.
Her doubles partner has been Jessica Weeks, a 5-11 sophomore from Beckenham,
Ky., who was a Big West first-team selection in this category and also
has done well in recent weeks in singles action, winning five in a row
and seven of eight.
Katy Williams, a 5-7 sophomore from Stevenage, Herfordshire, wound up
earning Big West first-team honors in both singles and doubles - and has
won her last four singles matches.
Another player who has done well has been Stephanie Bengson, the 5-10
Aussie who has been Williams' doubles partner and has been an impressive
18-5 in singles. She also was a first-team Big West selection in both
singles and doubles.
Jenny Hilt-Costello has only two seniors, Rocha and Porsz, on her team,
and already has signed two promising players for next season.
Naturally, both are foreigners, one from Germany and the other from Australia.
"My goal is for our program to always be in the Top 25," says
Hilt-Costello, whose team is now 44th ranked and will be an underdog against
No. 20 Pepperdine.
The 49ers reached the 18th spot last season, and her teams have gone 131-45
across the past seven seasons.
But it isn't easy for Hilt-Costello, who puts almost all the profits from
her annual summer tennis camp back into her program.
Still, she isn't complaining.
"I love my job here," she says, and it includes duties not exactly
commonplace for a Division I coach.
When the team departs Friday morning for Fresno, it will make the trip
in a 12-passenger van that will be driven by, of course, Jenny Hilt-Costello.
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