Tim Cleland was a sports editor in Muncie in the late 1980s when he was doing a story on a tennis player from Delta High School.
A former tennis player himself at Hauser, Cleland asked the Delta player if he needed someone to hit with. The player took him up on the offer.
After a few hitting sessions, the Delta player informed Cleland that his coach was pregnant, and the school needed someone to fill in for that season and he asked Cleland if he would be interested. Nearly three decades later, Cleland is the second-winningest coach in Indiana tennis history.
When Delta won its 26th consecutive boys tennis sectional title on Saturday, it gave Cleland 1,000 wins for his career as a boys and girls tennis coach.
“I think it’s a nice milestone,” Cleland said. “I think the key thing with any kind of a longevity milestone is the consistency. It represents almost three decades of support from players, parents, coaches.”
Cleland, 55, entered this week’s Marion Regional with 574 wins in his 29th season as a boys coach. He has 426 victories in 24 seasons as a girls coach.
In his 53rd season as a coach, Cleland has never had a losing record. This fall, the Delta boys team has played 12 teams ranked in the top 30 in the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association (IHSTeCA) poll.
“We’ve played some pretty tough schedules, especially the past 12 to 15 years,” Cleland said. “It’s one of the things that’s evolved over time.”
During Cleland’s tenure, the Deta boys have been to state five times and the girls three times. He’s had the state runner-up in girls singles, two state runners-up in girls doubles and boys doubles and a third-place finisher in boys singles.
Cleland was named state girls Coach of the Year in 2000 and state boys Coach of the Year in 2004 and twice was a finalist for National Coach of the Year. He was inducted into the Delaware County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Indiana High School Tennis Hall of Fame in 2008.
Growing up, Cleland played baseball for his father Dave Cleland and played Babe Ruth baseball for former Columbus High School basketball great Jerry Newsom. Tim Cleland played baseball and tennis at Hauser.
“My tennis coach at Hauser (Tom Canright) wasn’t a tennis expert, but he made it fun for all of us,” Cleland said. “He had a great sense of humor, and we respected him and we enjoyed being around him. I tried to incorporate that while teaching tennis, as well. Like a lot of coaches, I’ve stolen this and that from a lot of people.”
Cleland graduated from Ball State. After he began coaching at Delta, he went back and earned a teaching degree and has taught journalism at Delta ever since.
Only one other coach in Indiana history has won more than 1,000 career games. Cleland is within reach of former Floyd Central coach Rick Miller’s 1,024 career wins.
“If my health stays well, I’m going to teach and coach for another 10 years,” Cleland said. “I’m not worried about the record or anything like that. Sometime, somewhere, somebody will come around and break it.”
North looks to repeat
Columbus North will be prohibitive favorites to repeat as boys and girls cross-country sectional champions Saturday morning at Brown County.
The Bull Dogs’ 11th-ranked boys and 16th-ranked girls will be the lone top-25 squads in the field. Columbus East, Hauser, Brown County, Edinburgh and Trinity Lutheran also will be among the teams at Eagle Park.
The North boys likely would have been ranked higher this week, but fell two spots after a 10th-place finish in Saturday night’s Nike Valley Twilight Meet in Terre Haute. What pollsters may not have realized is that Bull Dogs coach Danny Fisher ran his three freshman varsity runners in the Freshman-Sophomore race, which North won.
“I’m pretty confident,” Fisher said. “We ran against some pretty good teams up at New Haven and at the Nike Twilight race Saturday night. A majority of boys have (set personal records) or ran season bests the last two weekends, so training is winding down, and we’re gaining confidence. We’re ready to roll through sectional and then meet Jennings County in the regional and the Bloomington schools at semistate and see how we compete.”
The Jennings boys and girls will be favored to win the Southwestern (Hanover) Sectional at Hanover College. The top five teams from the Brown County and Southwestern sectionals qualify for the Oct. 13 Brown County Regional.
Football draw is Sunday
The football postseason tournament pairings will take place on Sunday.
IHSAAtv.org will livestream the draw beginning at 6 p.m. The draw also will be broadcast on radio affiliates of the IHSAA Champions Network.
