Rex Ecarma's goal: as prepared as Petrino; run his practices like Pitino; schedule and stay cool like Crum

I knew Rex and his wife-- a little bit-- from the old days in the singles' groups at Southeast. Glad to hear about his success! (At the time of this post, he had led his squad to the Sweet 16 for the NCAA championship! They'll play on 5/21 in Athens, GA.)

Here's Ray Hall in the C-J...

The longest-serving head coach at the University of Louisville is Rex Ecarma, the men's tennis coach. He has been on the job 20 years....

Ecarma, 44, played tennis himself at Louisville in the 1980s, winning 100 singles matches. Playing for a cash-strapped program, he expected little in the way of perks. Actually, no perks. “When (coach) Kevin Walsh gave me two pairs of shorts and two T-shirts, I could have kissed his hand,” Ecarma said.

After graduating with a biology degree, Ecarma went to dental school one semester, then dropped out....He did mission work in Mexico and returned to Louisville, where he taught tennis at the Jewish Community Center and Blairwood Tennis Swim & Fitness Club.

At the community center, he met Lewis “Sonny” Bass, a tennis enthusiast who had played football and basketball at UofL in the 1940s...He encouraged Ecarma to apply for the coaching job when Walsh retired. At age 23, Ecarma interviewed for the tennis job. “I went there not expecting anything, and I was so relaxed and so carefree. … I thought surely they're not going to take a chance on a 23-year-old.” UofL had other ideas...

The first nine years Ecarma was on the job, UofL's record was 106-107. Since then, it's 205-105. He was just named Big East Coach of the Year the second time. His 22-5 team whitewashed Villanova, DePaul and Notre Dame in the league tournament...

Last year, Ecarma appeared on the “Rex Streak,” in which sports radio talk show host Jim Rome interviewed 20 people named Rex....

And then, this cool quote:

“I want to be as prepared as Bobby Petrino. I want to run my practices as intense and focused as Rick Pitino. I want to schedule like Denny Crum and to be cool under pressure during the match as Denny Crum.