Tennis coach reigns over dynasty
Timothy Petropoulos
Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: Sports
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The women's tennis team has also been impressive finishing second for the last three seasons.
Although players have both come and gone from the Baruch tennis program over the years, two things have remained constant: their dominance and by no coincidence their head coach.
Florin Giuglescu is one of the best coaches to ever grace the clay and he has the track record to prove it.
A native of Bolgrad, Romania, Giuglescu immigrated to the United States in 1973 and immediately took the tennis world by storm. As a player, he was ranked between 28th and 36th in the United States in the United States Tennis Association's Over-40 Division between 1983 and 1993, but his real talent was teaching.
Giuglescu has coached some of the best professional tennis players to ever play. His charges include Barbara Potter, Silvia Hanika, Tim Mayotte and Yannick Noah. Even more impressive, however, is his list of non-professional clients. A list that includes New York Daily News sports writer Mike Lupica, former MSNBC anchor Peter Jennings, actors Bill Cosby, Dustin Hoffman and Harrison Ford, the Governator, himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger and former President George H. W. Bush to name a few.
His reign at Baruch began in 1978 where he coached the team until 1987. He later returned to Baruch in the fall of 1996 and has coached the men's and woman's programs ever since. As Baruch's coach, he has been named CUNYAC Men's Coach of the Year in 2004 when he lead the Bearcats to an undefeated championship and was given the award again this season.
Maybe even more notable then Baruch's dominance on the court during Giuglescu's tenure has been their dominance off the court.
The 2006 women's tennis team featured a cumulative GPA of 3.44, and No. 1 female singles player Kateryna Pylypyshyna was twice named to the ESPN The Magazine District I - College Division All-Academic Second Team in 2006-07 according to the Baruch Athletics website.
If all of this was not impressive enough, Coach Giuglescu also speaks four languages and holds a Master of Science degree in Physical Education from the University of Bucharest.
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