Sometimes a short trip can lead to a long journey. Drexel tennis coach Mehdi Rhazali started playing the sport at age four for the simplest of reasons: his family’s house in their hometown,the Moroccan capital of Rabat, was located quite close to a tennis club.
On those six red clay courts, Rhazali formed a lifelong love affair with the game that ultimately brought him to Philadelphia.
“A turning point in my life came after a local tennis competition, where I witnessed my [older] brothers’ success in the tournament,” the 25-year-old says. “My primary athletic interest has been developing my tennis skills ever since.”
Those talents now include coaching and teaching. Rhazali is in his second year leading the Dragons’ men’s and women’s teams, and the results have been impressive. Last season the men reached the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals for the first time in school history, while the women posted a winning overall record. Both programs saw student-athletes earn first-team all-conference honors for the first time in their respective histories. Junior Badr Ouabdelmoumen, the men’s No. 1, and Zeynep Mafa were the decorated players.
“Coach Rhazali saw the best in me, and even at my best, he knew that I could do better,” says Mafa, a senior from Los Angeles, Calif. “He helped me realize that there is always room for improvement.
Mentally, he made me strong and he taught me that no matter how good a player is, they can’t go any further without believing in themselves and giving 110 percent.”
Occasionally Rhazali pinches himself to ensure that his job — coaching his alma mater’s tennis program, the team for which he starred for three seasons as a singles player just a few years ago — is not a dream. Coaching wasn’t on his radar when he first picked up a racquet, or even when he quit Morocco’s most popular sport, soccer, at age 10 to focus on his groundstrokes. As a teenager, he visited his brother Faycal (who was playing tennis at Radford University) nearly every summer to play tournaments and English before enrolling at Mercy College in New York.
There he adjusted to the American game quickly, rising to No. 6 on the East Coast in Division II schools and earning rookie-of-the-week honors three times. But he yearned to be challenged more academically.
Rhazali found what he was looking for at Drexel, where he earned his undergraduate degree in business administration in 2011 and served as co-captain of the tennis team his junior and senior years. During his co-op, he worked at a financial firm, which solidified his desire to become a tennis teacher.
“I wanted to [coach] somebody that you’re going to be with for a while and you can help improve and watch grow,” he says. “You find that more in college.” Fortuitously for him, the Drexel position opened in 2012, and Director of Athletics Eric Zillmer tapped him for the job.
“Mehdi has, in a remarkably short period of time, brought a high level of competitive excitement to men’s and women’s tennis at Drexel,” Zillmer says. “I think he is the perfect fit for Drexel. He is serious about being a coach, yet playful and elegant in his interactions with players and professional staff. Mehdi also brings a cross-cultural perspective to the team that I appreciate very much. All of this is not a surprise to me, since Mehdi exhibited those characteristics, love for the game of tennis and commitment to being a Dragon, while he was a Drexel student-athlete.”
Rhazali’s approach to the position is multifaceted. He not only works with his players on forehand and backhand technique, but on time management, fitness and academic issues as well. His philosophy has three pillars: one athletic, one academic and one personality-based. His goal is to lead the school to the CAA Championship, and one day, into the national rankings.
“Tennis is a sport that defines who you are on the court, and basically I always say this to them: You’ve got to play what the ball gives you,” he says. “When you are pushed back you are on defense. Basically life is like that. You cannot rush the steps, you cannot sprint to the goal, you’ve got to go one step at a time.”
As Rhazali knows, there’s no telling where in life those steps will lead you.