Cowboy Tennis: Dustin Taylor Building Winning Culture at Oklahoma State

The future of Cowboy tennis is bright and Dustin Taylor is a significant reason.

Coaches come in many forms, but they rarely come like Dustin Taylor.

In his third season as coach of Oklahoma State’s men’s tennis team, Taylor has led the team to its best season since his arrival in June of 2021. OSU is 16-7 and is poised for its third NCAA Tournament appearance in the past four years.

After back-to-back losses to UCF and TCU, the Cowboys looked forward to a homestand against Texas and Baylor. In the Cowboys’ March 28 match in Orlando, senior Isaac Becroft lost his match in a third-set tiebreaker to seal a loss for OSU. Yet, he was the first player back on the courts when the team returned to Stillwater on Friday.

“It’s unreal because I really love tennis,” Becroft said. “I heard [Taylor] saying he needs to tell some people to stop playing, and I’m definitely one of those. The more I play, the better I feel.”

Under Taylor, that type of mindset has become contagious. Perhaps it is because Taylor’s love for tennis is evident to anyone who has been around him. He credits one of his childhood coaches for instilling his immense love for the sport.

“My coach growing up, Mike DePalmer Sr., he was a great coach, legendary University of Tennessee coach,” Taylor said. “He was my private coach and a coach in my childhood. He really brought the love of college tennis to me. 

“No longer with us, but again, a Hall of Fame coach who was like a second father to me. He was really hard on us and really hard on his teams, but his teams knew that he had their back and loved them. That’s why he pushed them so hard.”

Before retiring in 1994, DePalmer led Tennessee to three SEC titles and six NCAA Tournament appearances. It is easy to see how DePalmer, the winningest coach in Tennessee history, shaped Taylor’s love and style.

Although his players at OSU might not necessarily consider Taylor a father figure, he is an undeniable leader for the team and has been crucial to the development of OSU’s tennis program. Alessio Basile is among the Cowboys who have felt Taylor’s impact on their game.

“He’s obviously kind of the father or the leader of our team,” Basile said. “So, he’s always, even if you lose, if you win, coming with inspirational stuff. He’s always like, gotta get back to work.”

In a match against Drake earlier this season, Taylor continued to give advice to Goran Zgola and Francisco Pini as they looked to seal a doubles point. His words of advice and trust in the freshman are part of why his players rally around him.

“He kept coming up to us pretty much to say to stick with your instinct like we’re good players,” Zgola said. “We’ve got good enough skills to be able to just trust them and rely on that.”

That connection goes from the Cowboys’ talented freshmen, such as Zgola, to star veteran Tyler Zink, the No. 23 singles player. The players’ closeness to their coach is obvious, even in innocuous moments like Zink running up to Taylor after a match excitedly yelling, “Hey, DT, DT, let me get a pic,” before taking a picture with his coach and running off.

As important as Taylor is for the team during a match, what happens before and after has created these special bonds.

“I think it’s very important to focus on the off-court stuff, and I know that sometimes it can kind of get overseen,” Zink said.

Although some of his players at OSU feel a father-like connection with Taylor, there are five people who feel that bond much closer. Sometimes seen cheering on their dad at the Greenwood Tennis Center, Taylor has five children: McKenzie, Brooklyn, Tatum, Decker and Hayes.

Taylor’s wife, Jennie Huber, is often the one accompanying the couple’s children at matches. Taylor and Huber met at the University of Tulsa, where Taylor had a successful career as a player.

Before graduating with a business degree in 2005, Taylor was an All-American and NCAA quarterfinalist in 2003. He also earned All-Western Athletic Conference honors four times and was a seven-time WAC player of the week.

After his time at Tulsa, Taylor quickly found his niche as a player development coach. For five years, Taylor spent time as the ATP development coach. After that, he had another four years as the United States Tennis Association’s national coach for men’s and collegiate tennis.

With nearly a decade of coaching experience, he made his way onto a college team’s coaching staff. Taylor was not on a typical staff, however. He got to be part of one of the best runs in college tennis.

In three seasons at the University of Virginia, Taylor helped the Cavaliers win three straight national championships. After being part of such successful teams at Virginia, Taylor understands the expectations he has in Stillwater.

“Oklahoma State brought me here because I’ve won national championships,” Taylor said. “I’ve been a part of national championship teams, and when you have that mindset, then everything is triggered toward April and May. It’s just the bottom line.”

Those expectations are not something Taylor and the Cowboys shy away from. Although the team has not reached the national championship level of those Virginia teams, Taylor’s coaching style is geared toward getting his team prepared for the postseason.

While at Virginia, Taylor coached alongside Brian Boland, who helped Virginia to four national championships and consistently led a top five program. With 612 career coaching wins, Boland was a key mentor for Taylor for three years.

“Arguably the most successful coach outside of Stanford’s Dick Gould in the history of college tennis,” Taylor said. “To spend three years next to him, be his last assistant and be a part of three national championship teams with him, super fortunate. To see those guys and how resilient they were and how much adversity they went through and how they just continued to get up the next day and get back to work.”

After winning three national championships at Virginia, Taylor returned to his position as an ATP and Junior development coach for two years. When OSU hired him in 2021, Taylor had vast experience across different levels.

Still, his success with the Cavaliers made him a perfect candidate to come to Stillwater. With a number of stops on his way to becoming OSU’s coach, Taylor has faced challenges. Overcoming those obstacles has molded Taylor’s coaching style and how he approaches the game.

“You look at people’s resumes, and you see the highlights, but how those highlights come to be is a tremendous amount of setbacks,” Taylor said. “Being a part of three national championship teams before, there was a part of the season that I felt like I feel right now. And the guys feel like they do right now.”

After stringing together some impressive conference wins, OSU’s struggles have compounded in its two recent losses. A 4-0 loss against TCU at home has been one of the lowest points.

Through all of the Cowboys’ struggles, staying the course has always been the message.

“I would just say that trusting a process, having a process, sticking to it, trusting the staff, trusting your players, and, again, just having the consistency day in and day out when it comes to your energy, effort, the process that you’re preaching,” Taylor said. “I think most coaches would say they can get better at that, and I certainly can.”

Along with staying the course throughout a difficult and oftentimes grueling tennis season, relishing every opportunity is a significant part of Taylor’s philosophy. Although losses to highly ranked teams such as Texas and TCU have hurt in the moment, those matchups have provided opportunities to assess where the team is at and what it can do to reach its goals.

“Adversity, if you treat it the right way, will take you to places that you would’ve never gone if you didn’t have that adversity,” Taylor said. 

---

Want to join the discussion? Like AllPokes on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Cowboys news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.