Nate Feldman completed his third year as head coach of the Norfolk State tennis programs in 2013-14, and once again Feldman had the Spartans on the rise after another successful season in 2014.
A year after finishing in a tie for first in the MEAC Southern Division, the men’s tennis team again did something it had never done before. The Spartans advanced to the final of the 2014 MEAC Championship for the first time ever. Despite the eventual setback to league champion South Carolina State, NSU nevertheless had one of its best seasons in years.
Norfolk State finished with a 14-7 overall record, tied with the 2007 team for the most overall wins since at least 2002. For the second year in a row, the Spartans also went 3-1 in conference play. Their South No. 2 seed in the MEAC tournament marked their best seed in eight years.
Feldman coached a school-record four Spartan men’s players to all-conference honors in 2014, led by MEAC Player of the Year Dzmitry Zyhmantovich, NSU’s second-ever player of the year. He and teammate Robin Riethmueller earned all-conference honors for the second year in a row. Peter Ramstromer-Pello and Daniel Grauel also were named to the all-conference team in 2014.
Freshman Liza Gordeeva was voted to the All-MEAC second team as well, giving NSU its first all-conference honoree on the women’s side in five years.
Feldman’s 2013 men’s team ended the year 13-9 overall and 3-1 in the MEAC, tying for first in the Southern Division. It marked the first time in the Division I era the Spartans finished in first in the regular season standings. NSU knocked off S.C. State in their regular season meeting, the Bulldogs’ first conference loss in three years. For his efforts, Feldman was voted the 2013 MEAC Coach of the Year, another first for NSU.
Zyhmantovich was named the MEAC Rookie of the Year in 2013, a year after teammate Igor Braga took home the honor in Feldman’s first year in 2012. Thanks to the team’s 13 wins in 2012, the NSU men’s team just completed its best three-year stretch (40 wins) in perhaps almost as many as 15 years. The Spartan men have also gone 21-8 during the last three years against teams from both MEAC divisions.
The women’s team has won 28 matches the last three years as well, giving the Spartans their best three-year stretch in more than 10 years. NSU won 10 matches in both 2012 and ’13, the most overall wins since 2003. The women finished with a winning record in 2013 for the first in five years, while the men did so for the first time in six seasons.
Aresenio Culver was named to the All-MEAC first team in 2012, his third-straight first-team all-conference honor. Culver and teammate Ben Marks ranked ninth in the ITA Atlantic Region for doubles at the end of the year. Both teams more than doubled their win totals from the previous year during Feldman’s rookie campaign at NSU.
A two-time winner of the department’s coach of the year award, he has also led NSU to great academic success. For the last two years, the women’s team has finished with the highest GPA among all of NSU’s athletic teams. They were also selected as an ITA All-Academic team in 2014 for the fourth year in a row, while the men were also honored for the second year in a row.
Braga and Andrea Macchiavello earned the athletic department’s Scholar Athlete of the Year awards in 2014 for having the highest individual GPAs among their respective genders. The tennis teams combined for seven 4.0 GPA performances between the fall and spring semesters in 2013-14.
Feldman was hired at NSU in September of 2011 after having been an assistant for a No. 1 ranked women’s team as well as a coach on the international tennis circuits.
Prior to his NSU arrival, he spent the 2010-11 season at Middle Tennessee State, where he helped lead the men’s tennis team to the Sun Belt tournament title and an NCAA tournament appearance. For his work, Feldman was nominated for the ITA Ohio Valley Region Assistant Coach of the Year Award.
Before his time at MTSU, Feldman’s collegiate coaching experience included a stint as a full-time volunteer coach for the women’s tennis team at North Carolina and as the women’s assistant coach at both Harvard and Virginia Tech.
During the 2009-2010 season at UNC, Feldman aided 2010 ITA National Coach of the Year Brian Kalbas and helped guide the Tar Heels to their finest season in program history, breaking numerous school records along the way. The Tar Heels surged in the ITA national rankings from No. 20 to No. 1, following a run to the finals of the prestigious ITA National Indoor Championship.
They achieved the No. 1 ranking a total of four times, defeated eight top-10 opponents, and won the regular season Atlantic Coast Conference title with a perfect 11-0 mark. The Tar Heels made the finals of the ACC tournament and finished the year with a record of 30-5.
Feldman’s assistance also resulted in the squad advancing to the NCAA team semifinals, as the Tar Heels finished the year with a final ranking of No. 3. UNC qualified four players to the NCAA Championships that year as well.
Prior to his stint at UNC, Feldman worked as a travel coach for numerous players on the ATP, WTA, ITF and USTA pro circuits. He has mentored players at nearly every major junior and professional event held in both North and South America.
Fluent in Spanish, Feldman has been heavily involved in competitive tennis in Colombia, providing numerous charity clinics in the city of Medellin. He has also given countless hours of free coaching and consultation, resulting in the placement of a number of top Latin tennis players into Division I programs.
In 2005-06, Feldman served as an assistant women’s coach at Virginia Tech, where he helped the team to one of its highest ever national team rankings. Other highlights during his time with the Hokies included the capturing of their first ACC win, placing a school-record six players in the individual rankings and qualifying a player into the NCAA tournament for the first time.
An active coach and sparring partner for a number of touring professionals, Feldman worked two months with 2005 French Open women’s quarterfinalist Sesil Karatantcheva. In May of 2005, he also traveled to southern Sweden, studying high-performance coaching under the direction of former Swedish Davis Cup coach and tennis legends Carl-Axel Hageskog, Stefan Edberg and Magnus Larsson.
Feldman played collegiate tennis at Minnesota, where he was a four-year letterwinner and member of the 2002-03 Golden Gopher squad that finished No. 10 in the nation, the highest ranking in school history. He was a three-time Big Ten All-Academic selection and a four-time scholar-athlete, graduating with distinction.
He received his bachelor’s degree in sport studies in 2004 and a master’s degree in kinesiology and sports management in 2005 from Minnesota as well as a Minnesota state coaching certification. He also is a USPTR certified “Professional” and was the youngest coach in the USTA Northern section to earn the distinction of “High Performance Certified.”
