SOUTHFIELD, Mich.- The Lawrence Technological University (Mich.) men's tennis team will kick off the 2018-19 season today at 11:00 AM when they face Taylor University (Ind.). This is the third time the Blue Devils face the Trojans, with Lawrence Tech holding a 2-0 lead in the all-time series. They will play their second match on August 25 in Indianapolis, Ind. against Marian University (Ind.) at 10:00 AM. These two teams have only played one match against each other, which the Blue Devils won back in March of this year.

LTU comes back with a new team to the court after their second appearance on the National Championship and achieving the program's record on the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (4-1).

Lawrence Tech caught up with Head Coach Steve Behmlander to talk about the upcoming season. Here is what he had to say about it:

Last year this team achieved the best record on the WHAC in the program's history (4-1), and went for the second time to Nationals. How are you getting prepared to exceed these expectations this year? How much has your team changed in comparison to last year?

With the exception of one of our players, we have all new kids. We have one upperclassman who is a transfer, and we have a bunch of kids that are 17-18 years old. If I look back five years ago when we started this program, that is the same make up we had. We had a transfer student and a bunch of kids who had just graduated high school. How we trained them then and how we train them now is the same. We are going to be very young and energetic, and we are going to make mistakes. If I can get over that and not compare this team to the team I had for the last three years, I will be okay. There should not be any comparisons because this is a completely different team. The kids that we graduated last year were fully-grown and mature young men, 21-22 years old. This year we got some young kids, they need to learn to play doubles, they need to make sure they are setting their points up before they try to end a point, they need to be taught, but they are at a much higher level than the kids we brought five years ago. The program now has a brand, the program now has a national presence, and that only comes from hard work.

Are you doing anything different in comparison to previous years?

We are doing more fitness than in previous years. […] Stamina is a huge piece of tennis. If you are out there in a match on a humid day at 85 degrees, you better be fit, so we are working a lot on that. We are also working a ton on our doubles because unlike the ladies, where we are putting upperclassmen with younger kids, here we are putting kids and kids together. High-level singles players, but with no doubles experience. They will win some matches in doubles because they are good athletes, but we have to teach them the game of doubles.

What would you consider your team's strongest suit? How is the chemistry in the team? 

I think that our strongest suit right now is that they are young and they are like sponges, they will absorb everything that Sergio Vidal-Lopez and I tell them. As long as they continue to pay attention, they will learn. They have to stay together after losing, and they cannot get too boastful after winning. We have to find that middle ground. One of the other things that is a very strong suit is their support for each other. […] We flew kids in from all over the world. We have a young man from Russia, we have a young man from Ukraine, we have two kids from Spain, we have a German on the team, we have one kid from England, and another from Venezuela. We are pulling these kids from every corner of the world to come to Lawrence Tech University in Southfield, Mich. and become a team is beyond my wildest dreams. It is so exciting. I love each and every one of them, but you have to be hard on them at times because they are young. You have to know what their hot buttons are and what they do not like, you have to find that middle ground.

How is the team coming together?  Do you already know the lineup for Friday's game?  

Singles is cut-and-dried. Robert Saitov (JR/Ufa, Russia) had some health issues last year that affected his play, which affected his place in the lineup. This year he will start on our #1 singles spot. He is playing great tennis and he has become a team leader. He has literally held our new kids by the hand and walked them through orientation and the registration process. To have a leader on the team like Robert is a coach's dream. Doubles have also started to come together. On Wednesday morning we decided on what the doubles pairings are going to be. We may massage that as the season goes on, but right now we are pretty firm on what we are going to do.

How would you describe the competitive level of the teams you are playing against this season in comparison to the ones you played on previous seasons? 

We are playing a much stronger schedule. The tough part of that is that we are playing it with a younger squad. But again, they need to be held to the fire, they need to be thrown into the mix, and they need to understand this is college tennis. I think each and every one of them will step up. My concern is not to win or lose, my concern is getting them ready for next year. We get a year under our belt, we will win some matches, we will lose some close ones, and we will get beat up at times, but the important part is that they learn something from that.

I saw that both of your teams did an excellent job in the classroom last year. Both teams were NAIA Scholar-Teams. How do your players balance school, matches, and practice?

There is a very friendly rivalry between the men's and the women's team regarding the GPA. If the girls get a 3.49, the boys want a 3.50. If the boys get a 3.50, the girls want a 3.51. That is fantastic. What I always tell our kids is "as much as I love you and as good tennis players as you are, nobody is going to the pro tour after graduation. You are always going to be an academic. Get your education. Be as brilliant in the classroom as you are on the tennis court". When I recruit, the only things I can recruit on are brilliance, character, and tennis ability, in that order. Brilliant kids come in with great grades, high GPAs, and high test scores. Character, are they a different kid when I am not watching? They should be the same. How do they carry themselves? They are representing themselves, the tennis team, and LTU. The character aspect is very important to me. At last is the tennis ability. We have been blessed with great tennis players here.

The other thing I stress so deeply during the recruiting process is "you have to be a good time manager". There are 24 hours in the day, eight of those are taken for sleep. You have 16 hours to get everything else done: study tables, classes, homework, weightlifting, two hours of practice, and [having] a social life would be kind of nice too. […] We also travel, we are out of class, and all those things that go with being a college athlete. […] If you have the ability to be a good time manager, you will do very well in college.

Do you have any sports philosophy or an inspirational quote you give your players before every game?

I treat our kids like I want to be treated. My daughter was a college tennis player, so we watched her recruitment process and my philosophy in life is to treat people like you want to be treated. I do that with our kids. We do not have a ton of team rules, but I expect them to follow the ones that we do have. My goal is not so much to make them the best tennis players, I mean I can help them do that, but they need to take advantage of everything around them to be the best students they can be, and my goal is to teach them life lessons. […] My job is 49% coach and 51% surrogate parent; I am their dad when they are here.