Bo Hodge is Georgia Tennis Associate Head Coach: First Step Toward Transition?

After rocketing to prominence as a collegiate tennis coach, Bo Hodge is the new Associate Head Coach for Manny Diaz and the Georgia Tennis team. Is Georgia Head Coach his next stop?

Georgia Tennis All-American Bo Hodge is coming home to Athens. “We are excited about the future of our tennis program at the University of Georgia,” Head Georgia tennis coach Manuel Diaz told Georgiadogs.com.

Is the Georgia tennis succession plan taking shape? It sure looks like it. Closing in on 30 years as Georgia head tennis coach, Diaz named Hodge men’s tennis associate head coach this week.

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“We are thrilled to have Bo back at the University of Georgia,” Diaz said. “After having an outstanding career as a player at UGA, I have seen him develop and become a phenomenal coach who can help our young men improve on and off the tennis court. Bo will have an easy task integrating back into our program, and he brings diverse experience from the past 10 years working with some great players and coaches.”

It makes sense to believe this is a first step by Coach Diaz toward a seamless transition to a new regime. Certainly, Diaz observed Coach Dan Magill’s masterful transition of power after a 34 year tenure as tennis coach from Magill to himself in 1989.

Unlike the indecisive transition of the Gymnastics’ program out of the hands of coach Suzanne Yoculan in 2009 and the unfocused transition of the football program from Vince Dooley stewardship into Ray Goff’s hands in 1989, Coach Magill executed an invisible pass of the reigns to Manny Diaz in 1989. There was never a hiccup in the program’s progress as the tennis team has since won six NCAA Championships and two Indoor Championships, reaching the NCAA finals an additional seven other times.

Diaz, a heralded Bulldog tennis letterman as is Hodge, succeeded legendary Bulldog tennis head Coach Dan Magill – himself a former Bulldog letterman – after serving for six years as Magill’s assistant. With his return to Athens, Hodge’s career now is strikingly similar to that of Coach Diaz.

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A native Athenian, Hodge comes to Georgia after serving as associate head coach at Oklahoma under former Bulldog John Roddick. Since arriving in Norman, the Sooners compiled their best four-year record ever, 97-18. Oklahoma reached the NCAA finals the last two seasons, on the way winning a program record 29 matches, the school’s first National Indoor title to earn top seed in the NCAA Championship.

“I’m humbled and honored to accept the position of associate head coach at the University of Georgia,” Hodge told Georgiadogs.com. ” Being from Athens and playing at Georgia, it has always been a dream to come back and coach my alma mater.”

Hodge served as a volunteer coach for the Bulldogs from 2006-2008. During those three seasons , Georgia won three national championships (National Indoors in 2006, NCAA in 2007 and 2008) and back-to-back-to-back SEC championships with an 89-4 record.

Hodge also spent three years as an assistant coach at Alabama under Billy Pate from 2008-2011. He helped the Crimson Tide earn a pair of berths to the NCAA Championship. He played on the ATP Tour for two years before serving as a coach and hitting partner with Venus and Serena Williams in 2005-06. He also worked with Mardy Fish in 2007 and 2008. Hodge is coaching the USTA Collegiate National Team for the fifth consecutive year.

Hodge is one of seven four-year All-SEC honorees to play under Diaz. A member of the 2001 NCAA championship team, he played on three SEC championship teams (2001, 2002 and 2004), ranked as high as No. 2 in the country in both his freshman and senior seasons, and spent much of his college career ranked in the nation’s top five in both singles and doubles. He reached the NCAA doubles final in 2004 with Isner.

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