MSU's Guichard Shares SEC Coach Of Year Honors With Former Mentor
Guichard has led the Bulldog netmen to an 11-8 overall record this season, including a 6-5 mark in league competition. The Bulldogs are the No. 6 seed in this weekend's SEC tournament in Athens, Ga., marking the team's highest seed in the event since 2000.
Under Guichard's leadership this year, MSU had the most improved SEC record of any team in the conference, going from 2-9 in 2004 to 6-5 this year. The 6-5 SEC record marks State's first winning league record in five years.
After tying for last in the SEC and in the Western Division last year, the Bulldogs finished tied for fourth overall and second in the West this season. The fourth place tie was MSU's best league finish since 1998 and second in the West was the Bulldogs' best since the league adopted divisions for men's tennis in 2002.
State also earned a top 15 ranking for the first time in three years, and the Bulldogs will finish 2005 with their first overall winning record since 2001. Three of MSU's five SEC losses this year have been by 4-3 scores. All five setbacks were to top 25 teams, three in the top 15.
Guichard becomes only the third Mississippi State tennis coach ever to earn SEC Coach of the Year accolades, joining Tom Sawyer (1967) and Jackson (1991). Sawyer led MSU to four top 16 NCAA finishes from 1965-68 and the SEC crown in '67, while Jackson guided the Bulldogs to 11 consecutive NCAAs from 1991-2001, including 10 "Sweet Sixteen" showings, the SEC title in 1993, and the SEC Tournament championship in '96. This season, Jackson led the No. 5 Gators (17-5, 10-1 SEC) to a share of the SEC title, the second time he has claimed the conference crown in his four seasons in Gainesville.
"I am very proud of what our team has been able to accomplish this season and I want to give our guys a tremendous of amount of credit for working hard all year," Guichard said. "It is a great honor to be named SEC Coach of the Year. It is even bigger for me, personally, that I am sharing it with the guy who taught me just about everything I know about coaching college tennis. This means a great deal to me."
Guichard spent two seasons under Jackson as a player in 1992-93, a year as a student assistant coach in 1994, and six seasons as his assistant coach from 1996-2001. In his first three seasons as State's head coach, the Grenoble, France, native has led MSU to three consecutive NCAA appearances and into position for a fourth this season. MSU is one of only seven teams in the nation to have received 14 straight bids to the NCAA field.