Long journey leads to Lehman College for new tennis coach

Like a lot of students who have just completed their college years, Ana Belzunce wasn’t sure what her next step was going to be. Born and raised in Spain before coming to America to attend the University of Maryland, Belzunce was at a crossroads. A star tennis player for the Terrapins as a No. 2 singles player, her post-college choices centered on how far the game of tennis could take her and whether that would be as a player or putting her on a path to a possible coaching career.

In the end, getting her fill of one has led to a blossoming career in the other.

“After I finished college here in the U.S., I went back to Europe and played for a year and then I really didn’t know what to do with my life,” Belzunce said. “But I knew I always wanted to live in New York so there was this position at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy [on Randall’s Island] and they were looking for coaches, so I decided to apply. I had started coaching when I was in Spain, so I figured I’d just keep doing this until I figure out what I really want to do.”

Turns out coaching is exactly what she wants to do, as Belzunce begins her first full season as the new head coach for men’s and women’s tennis at Lehman College. But it was a long and winding road that ultimately led Belzunce to the Bronx.

Belzunce had just completed high school in Spain when she had aspirations of coming to America and playing tennis at a major university. But at 18, she said, she wasn’t sure she was ready for such a life-altering move. It took some time, but ultimately she did make her way to Maryland to fulfill that dream of playing Division I college tennis.

“When I was 18, I was already thinking of coming to the U.S. and playing sports but then I wasn’t really ready,” Belzunce said. “So I started school in Spain and I stayed there for two years. But then when I was 20, one of my friends who was also on the tennis circuit said she was going to Maryland, and I knew about that school.”

During her stint at Maryland, Belzunce became a dominant player. She cracked the NCAA’s Top 100 in singles play, and in her two seasons with the Terrapins, she compiled a sterling 41-24 record at No. 2 singles.

Those two years Belzunce decided to stay in Europe paid off handsomely, as she played with several club teams in Germany, France and her native Spain, during which time she honed her tennis skills and gained the self confidence to ultimately make the move to America.

“It’s a little different in Europe because we don’t have the college sports systems like in the U.S., so we play in a lot of international tournaments and also in club leagues,” Belzunce said. “It’s not really like college, they are private clubs and I wound up playing in Germany and France and, obviously, in Spain.”

Belzunce flourished as a No. 1 singles player for RCP Barcelona in Spain, Neuilly Plaisance Sports and TC de Saint Gaudens in France and with HTC Bad Neuenahr in Germany.

“It was really fun. For me it was a big experience because you’re travelling and sometimes you don’t even know where you’re going next,” Belzunce said, laughing.

“It’s like the next day you find out you have to play in Germany and you have to get there. But it was really good to help you grow to be a better player and be able to travel by yourself. The personal growth was really great.”

But by the end of her career at Maryland, Belzunce was ready for something a little different. She knew she wanted to remain in the game she loved, but her appetite for competing was beginning to wane. That was when a new career in coaching was about to be born.

I still wanted to play professional, so that summer was kind of like, ‘Do I stay and study or do I go play professional for a year?’” Belzunce said. “So, I decided to go professional and then after that year I decided to start coaching in the Madrid Tennis Federation.”

And Belzunce hasn’t for a minute regretted her decision to give up her playing career.

“I’m done playing. That year I played [after college] was good for me because it was the first time I got to just play without being in school at the same time,” Belzunce said. “So I played in my tournaments and I did my best but I was ready to start coaching.”

Initially, there was a coaching stint at Premier Tennis of Oxford in England, along with her time at the Madrid Tennis Federation, before she finally came back to America and landed her coaching gig at the McEnroe Academy. It was there, Belzunce said, that she sharpened her coaching skills to the point that she was ready for the college-coaching world.

“It really helped me. I spent a lot of hours there and I gained a lot of experience in a short time,” Belzunce said. “You get to coach adults, groups of kids, give individual lessons and we also had public schools that would come in the morning so I got all sorts of experience with all age levels and groups.”

Belzunce eventually landed a job at John Jay College in the City University of New York Manhattan (CUNY), but before long she saw there was an open position at Lehman. It was a chance for Belzunce to finally lead her own program.

“I was really enjoying my time at John Jay, so I decided I wanted to keep doing this and I like CUNY.” Belzunce said. “I had a little bit of experience in the conference, so coming here to Lehman was a good place for me.”

Belzunce took over in the spring semester last season at Lehman, just in time to coach the Lightning’s men’s team. With little time to work with her new team before the season began, Belzunce still managed to lead the Lightning to victories over CUNY powers Brooklyn College and the College of Staten Island in the same season for the first time in a decade.

“For me it’s the same coaching men and women,” Belzunce said. Last spring “was my first time coaching a men’s team, so I was a little curious as to how that would go. But it really was just the same as coaching women. They respected me the same. They saw that I helped them improve and they see that I care about them and that I’m organized.”

So, do Belzunce’s players know of her extensive background as a player and coach in the international tennis circles? Yes, but she doesn’t use that to bolster her credibility with her players.

“They know about me but what I like to do, I always like to play with them in practice, so I think maybe the credibility comes with me playing a set against them and beating them,” Belzunce said with a laugh. “Beating them is better than talking about it.”

So far this fall, Belzunce has the Lehman’s women’s team sporting a 2-1 record. When you consider the women’s team won just five matches all last season, you can see Belzunce has already begun to have a positive effect on the program.

“I’m very excited about this team. My goal is to make them play the best they can and that will take us wherever it takes us,” Belzunce said. “But we have very good players. I think we will be able to do pretty well in CUNY.”

Belzunce is just the latest inspired hire in the Lehman athletic department, following the recent hires of heavy hitters Hugh Reid as track coach and Erin Van Nostrand as assistant athletic director. Reid was phenomenally successful at City College where he led the men’s track program to six straight indoor and six consecutive outdoor titles while Van Nostrand won an NCAA Division III national championship as head softball coach at Pacific Lutheran University.

Is Lehman building itself a powerhouse athletic program in the CUNY? It certainly appears so.

“I haven’t been here that long to know the history here but, yeah, right now when you walk into the athletics office, there is a good vibe there and everybody seems to have a very competitive team and it’s great to be part of it,” Belzunce said. “You see a lot of teams that are improving and doing much better than they had been doing and my program has the feeling of getting bigger and building for success.”

The Bronx is a far cry from France, Germany, England and Spain, but it is now home for Belzuce and she is comfortable in her new environs. And she couldn’t be happier about running her new program and building the Lehman tennis program into one to be reckoned with in the CUNY.

“These players are really thankful to get coaching and have people who care for them so to me it’s very nice here. I really like it here,” Belzunce said. “It’s working out really well for me.”

And for the Lehman Lightning tennis program as well.