Former Husker is now a Bulldog coach

After spending the past two years as the assistant coach for the Husker women’s tennis team, Lisa Hart has a new role. Hart has been named the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Concordia University in Seward. 

“I’m excited to be a head coach again and the opportunity to coach men (and women) is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Hart said. “At the NAIA level the emphasis is much more on developing players, which is one of my favorite things about coaching.”

Lisa played for the Huskers from 1994-1998 and then spent 18 years as head women’s coach at Washington State University in Pullman. Prior to that she coached at Virginia Tech. Although she’s now coaching at a different level, she said the lessons learned carry over.

“We are in a building process which I have a lot of experience with,” she said. “We need to make sure we continue to focus on building our positive team culture. Our players are very much on board, coachable and have the right mentality.  As a coaching staff we need to focus on retention/developing of our current players and recruiting new players.”

Hart said she was fortunate to sign Chakira Derman who was living with extended family in Lincoln. She is originally from Togo (Africa) and has the highest UTR on the women’s team. Hart said she has been a huge boost to our women’s team. In addition, she also hired a new assistant coach as well. 

“I was fortunate to hire Jorge Chevez, who was the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) player of the year last year from Doane. He has been extremely valuable not only on the court but also helping me learn about the NAIA and specifically the GPAC Conference. We are extremely lucky to have him on staff!”

Originally from Washington, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Physical Education and Sports Studies from Nebraska. She has two kids and lives in Lincoln. 

Hart’s main goal this season is to win the GPAC Championship. 

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