Telling Sooners no was hard for Wintherbotham

The family temptation was enormous.

Sam Wintherbotham could return to the state where he played college tennis and met his wife.

He would have built-in babysitters for his three young children - with a fourth on the way.

But Tennessee's men's tennis coach decided the grass wasn't greener in Norman, Okla. And despite his wife urging him to take the Oklahoma job, Winterbotham decided to stay at Tennessee and reap the benefits of a rebuilding job that shows great promise.

"It simply came down to, I just could not leave what Tennessee has here,'' said Winterbotham, who guided the Vols to the finals of this year's SEC tournament and the NCAA Round of 16. "It's a very unique situation.''

Oklahoma has seven of eight players returning from a team that was ranked 47th in the nation, went 12-10, 1-5 in the Big 12 South and didn't make the NCAA tournament. It would be similar to the rebuilding job he faced when he arrived at UT. The Vols were 9-11, 3-8 in the SEC and ranked 50th in 2006.

Under Winterbotham, UT is 63-19, has improved its ranking from 25 to nine to five, defeated top-ranked Georgia and No. 3 Ohio State, and finished second in the SEC East three times.

"We're excited about the direction of our tennis program and the job Sam and Chris (Woodruff, associate head coach) have done,'' UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said. "They have us well positioned for even greater success on the horizon.''

The Vols return all six players in the singles lineup, including 2008 NCAA singles runner-up J.P. Smith, and add highly touted Rhyne Williams of Knoxville.

"The truth is, the decision came down to, we have something special here,'' Winterbotham said. "Tennessee is as good of an athletic department as you will find. Knoxville is a fantastic place to raise a family, and I would argue as good as any in the country. And those are the two most important things to me.''

Winterbotham said he didn't want to abandon the players he's recruited or Woodruff.

"We have such great guys that are doing such special things right now,'' he said.

So Winterbotham, with his wife Tara in tears, told Oklahoma no.

"If it wasn't for the family pull,'' he said, "it wouldn't have been an issue at all.''

The Sooners offered about $130,000 - some $30,000 more than UT was paying - with a more generous bonus package. UT countered with an offer of about $135,000.

Oklahoma also interviewed Rodney Harmon, a former Vol, and John Roddick, Andy's brother.

Double Trouble: Winterbotham praised his doubles team of Smith and Davey Sandgren for making the NCAA doubles finals before losing to Virginia in three sets.

"Anytime you have an opportunity to compete for a national championship in anything, I don't care what it is, it's an incredible honor and we've managed to do that in the past two years with John-Patrick last year in the singles finals,'' he said.

Winterbotham said Smith and Sandgren had an "incredible year'' and he lauded the efforts of Sandgren.

"He just grew unbelievably this year,'' Winterbotham said. "By no means is he a doubles specialist, but if he wanted to be, he could be. We value him too much in singles now. He played his best tennis down the stretch for our team.''

Winterbotham said UT will lose Jeremy Tweedt, a sophomore from Paris, France, and Christian Hansen, a freshman from Germany.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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