Columbia, Mo.- Colt Gaston joins the Mizzou Tennis staff after a season as an assistant coach at Furman University in 2014. Before that, Gaston spent time coaching at the IMG Tennis Academy and the Weil Tennis Academy. He played collegiate tennis at LSU, earning ITA Doubles All-American honors in 2007.
Q: What drew you to take the position at Mizzou?
CG: "The draw of the SEC and Sasha was a really big part of me coming here. Just seeing her passion for the team and the sport and seeing the family environment at Mizzou was big. I love that kind of atmosphere."
Q: What about our campus and our facilities here?
CG: "It's a great tennis complex and the newer facility here is really special. The people that I met when I came here and their passion about Mizzou made me really excited about coming here and being a part of the family."
Q: When you met next year's team, what did you see in them?
CG: "There's a lot of fire with the girls. Last year was a tough one for them. To see them hungry and wanting to get back and push to do some big things got me on board to get motivated as well."
Q: You were an All-American at LSU. What's the key to competing and winning in the SEC?
CG: "The biggest thing is not getting overwhelmed with all the other obstacles out there. You have to stay focused on the little things. Every single match is going to be really tough so rebounding and learning from those losses quickly is pretty important. In the SEC, whether you're playing Friday, Sunday or Thursday, if you dwell on it, it's going to be a tough turnaround in two days. So you have to stay focused on the task at hand and trust your game and trust your shots. The more the girls can do that, I think that they can focus on doing the best that they can instead of wins and losses and where they're at."
Q: How does Mizzou stack up in the SEC going forward?
CG: "That's something I did a lot of research on before coming here. One thing that's clear and obvious is that they're close. The girls are close to achieving the goals they've set so it's cool for me to come in and be hungry and help them achieve those goals. If I didn't believe in Mizzou, I wouldn't be here."
Q: What was the highlight of your playing career?
CG: "Probably my run at NCAAs with my doubles partner Danny Bryan. We had a year where we lost maybe two or three matches in doubles. There was a good chemistry between us and it was cool to have someone to do that with and experience with. I think my whole college career at LSU was a lot of fun. One thing I want to stress with the girls is don't let these times fly by. Enjoy them and get on the court, work hard and make sure you're going out there and giving it your all because it'll fly by."
Q: Why tennis growing up?
CG: "My brother is nine years older than me and he played tennis. When I was two or three, I was at the tournaments bored to death so I just hit balls against the wall. It was just one of those things where I saw a wall and just started hitting on it and things went from there."
Q: Explain your coaching style. What do you bring to the table?
CG: "For me, my coaching philosophy is I'm going to do a lot of drills helping them focus on what's going on right now. I like to focus point by point and not get overwhelmed about whether you're down a break or a set. You don't want to see a huge mountain in front of you. You want to chip away at it when you're down. I'm also a big fan of only training one way. You don't go 80 percent or 90 percent. When you're on the court there's only one way to go at it: 100 percent. Since I've been here I've heard a lot of people talking about Mizzou Made and I love that kind of stuff. It all goes together. There's one way to do it and that's working harder than everyone else. You don't train average. You go above and beyond."
Q: How will you and Sasha challenge the team in the offseason?
CG: "The girls are going to have to be pushed. I know they aren't satisfied after last year so it sounds pretty cliché, but if we're going to do bigger and better things, we have to work harder and push ourselves harder than we ever have because if we do what we did, we won't get where we want to go. We need to understand that every day in practice is important. It's not about getting through weeks. It's about improving and achieving goals throughout the year. It's about now. Live in the moment and push every day in practice."
Q: What are your immediate and long-term goals for this upcoming season?
CG: "Immediate goals are to get them all involved in tournaments and get those matches in. The more matches for them the better right now. When we get started in the fall, those practices will get everyone fit. We want to get them fit right off the bat and then in the long term, we don't look at trying to win a certain number of matches. We want to feel like we're competing and giving everything we've got for every single match."