My Carolina Experience: Roland Thornqvist
December 24, 2014 | Men's Tennis
My Carolina Experience: Roland Thornqvist
By Zoya Johnson, GoHeels.com
Editor's Note: Our Christmas Eve My Carolina Experience article features Roland Thornqvist, All-America men's tennis at UNC from the Class of 1993. He has gone on to a spectacular coaching career as an assistant to Sam Paul at UNC and three head women's tennis coaching tenures at Kansas, UNC and Florida, where he has won three national championships since 2003.
“It's pretty easy to sell North Carolina because I think the world of the institution. Chapel Hill is beautiful, academically the school is fantastic, the people on the campus are world class and they're going take care of you.”
These are the words of Roland Thornqvist, one of the best collegiate athletes to come out of the men's tennis program at University of North Carolina. He came to Carolina after a freshman year at Elon University where he led the team to a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) team championship while attaining the individual and doubles titles.
After Thornqvist's amazing freshman year he wanted to transfer to an NCAA Division I school but was reluctant to go very far from where he was. UNC seemed like the natural choice and in his words, “It was obviously one of the best decisions I've ever made.”
“When I transferred, I didn't know the guys that well so I really wanted to try to fit in and help the team by working hard. I really love the game so I practiced all the time. Early in my career at North Carolina, I probably favored tennis more than I did the academics but once my junior and senior years came along I started to study more and did better in the classroom and it was remarkable to see how that also helped my tennis game because my senior year was clearly my best year of all.”
In fact, after his amazing start in the NAIA ranks, Thornqvist only continued to improve against stiffer competition at the top NCAA level. Under the guidance of head coach Allen Morris and his assistant coach Sam Paul he became a three-time first-team all-ACC selection. In his junior and senior years Thornqvist became an All–America, helped the team qualify for the NCAA quarterfinals, and led the Heels to an ACC Tournament championship.
As a senior, he won the 1993 Rolex National Indoor Singles Championship (a feat not repeated by a Tar Heel until sophomore Brayden Schnur won the title last fall) and he became the only college player in history to receive the Rafael Osuna National Sportsmanship award from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association twice. The award is given to a Division I men's player who exemplifies sportsmanship, character and excellence as an athlete and in their academics.
Thronqvist ended his NCAA career in 1993 ranked No. 4 in the country for singles and would then go on to play professionally for a year before returning to North Carolina to finish his degree in economics and work as an assistant coach for the new men's head coach, Sam Paul.
“When I decided to stop playing Sam was kind enough to let me work with him as his assistant. I didn't intend to stay but I fell in love with it immediately. After that first semester with Sam I realized that it was something I really loved to do and it seemed like I was good at it.” That, it seems is an understatement when you consider teams Thornqvist has worked with have made 20 consecutive NCAA team appearances since he first began coaching.
He assistant Paul from 1994-1996 before moving up to head coaching responsibilities when he was asked to take over the women's tennis program at Kansas in 1996. In the two years he coached there, Thorqvist's teams made a pair of NCAA appearances, one of which got them all the way to the Round of 16.
He was asked back to UNC to become the women's head coach 1998 and that year he took them from a 5-17 record to their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. The Heels went 16-9, finishing fourth in the ACC. The squad also earned the program's first NCAA Tournament victory, a 5-4 win over Washington in Oxford, Miss. He would coach at UNC until 2001 when he was asked to become the head coach at the University of Florida.
“Making the transition from Carolina to the University of Florida was tough. I met my wife at Carolina and her family was from North Carolina but Florida made an offer we couldn't refuse. It was tough but I've loved every minute of the 13 years since we've been in Gainesville.”
Those years have been highlighted by three NCAA championships, nine conference titles and eight final national rankings in the Top 3 in the country. His players have consistently garnered All-American status on the court and in the classroom. Personally, he has been named the Southeastern Conference coach of the year four times.
“I played so much tennis that when I decided to stop in my early 20s, I knew it was the right decision for me. I really never had any second thoughts. By pursuing a coaching career, I never really had a chance to miss the game and it's always been with me. I think playing at Carolina at a high level and playing on the tour helped me as a coach because I still to this day try to put myself in the mind of a player when I'm coaching. I think about what it was that I enjoyed and what helped me when I was an athlete.”
What Thornqvist took away from his time at Carolina was the reality that character matters. In that, he has made it a point when coaching to take the entire person into account, and not just the athlete. “With Coach (Dean) Smith as our basketball coach when I was in school at Carolina, I remember he was just all about class. I will always remember watching his teams. They were tough, hard, well-coached and they were always classy and I think the entire athletic department at UNC reflected that.
“Being a student-athlete at Carolina and then coaching there afterwards with Sam Paul solidified that notion, it's something I learned in Chapel Hill and it's something I have taken with me throughout my career.”
Players Mentioned
