Glendale Community College Men’s Tennis Preview: Change at top for Vaqueros
Chris Tissot learned plenty under Bob MacKay as a player and assistant coach on the Glendale Community College men’s tennis team.
MacKay announced his retirement after 15 seasons as Glendale coach following last season and turned over the duties to Tissot.
“There’s no question I learned so much from Bob and he’s like a mentor to me,” said Tissot, who played at Glendale from 2003-04 and served as an assistant from 2010-16 before becoming the head coach of the Palomar women’s team last season. “We had a lot of success together and the team did well because they listened to Bob. That’s something I won’t forget and I want to try to keep that going.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned in the process is the difference between being an assistant and head coach is that you have to be in good position to put a strong team together. I put a team together at Palomar and we had some success. We only had one player there before I came in and then we had players coming in and doing so well. At Glendale, Bob talked a lot about being a self-competitor and I want that to continue with the current group of players we have.”
MacKay won two Western State Conference championships and helped the Vaqueros qualify for the playoffs multiple times, including last season when Glendale finished 13-5, 8-2 for second in conference behind Ventura before advancing to the Southern California Regionals. Sixth-seeded Glendale fell, 5-1, to third-seeded Cypress in the first round.
Glendale will begin its season at 2 p.m. Friday with a nonconference home match against Occidental College.
“It’s important to understand that you learn something, whether you win or lose a match,” said Tissot, who had three singles players and one doubles team at Palomar qualify for the regional and state tournament last season. “You aren’t going to win every match, but, if you fight hard, then at least you give yourself a chance.
“Like Bob, I want to see each player competing and giving their all. Success can and will come with that.”
Sophomores Kevin Orellana (Burbank High), David Preciado, Natsumi Abe and Luis Pedro and freshman Daniel Garcia will highlight the GCC lineup.
“We have some players with experience,” Tissot said. “We just have to be prepared along the way and be set for conference because conference will be tough again.”
Glendale will begin conference Feb. 6 at home against Ventura. The teams will meet at Ventura on March 6. The Vaqueros will finish conference play March 27 at L.A. Pierce.
The conference tournament will be held April 6-7 in Ventura.
The 118th annual Ojai Invitational, which serves as the season-ending state tournament, will occur April 26-29.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
