Earlier this month, the Iowa women’s tennis team added a valuable member to its coaching staff.

The new assistant, Denise Dy, played her college tennis at Washington, graduating in 2012.

Iowa head coach Katie Dougherty is hoping the fresh-out-of-college assistant will provide a different voice on the Hawkeye sidelines.

“She’s young, she’s energetic, she is a fantastic player and she has a lot of international experience,” head coach Katie Dougherty said.

Dy said she got the idea to go into coaching during her second year at Washington.

She said one of the main reasons she enjoys tennis is because it is a sport in which the team dynamics are intact and a player is still able to excel individually.

Speaking of excelling, Dy was a three-time All-American at Washington. In her time there she reached as high as No. 3 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings for singles and No. 6 for doubles.

“All the girls know I’ve done this before, this is not my first rodeo,” Dy said.

It’s not. She’s played all different levels of competition both in the U.S. and internationally.

Since graduating, she has worked with a number of high-performance tennis clubs and also played as a member of the Philippine National Team.

At the Southeast Asian Games in 2011, she garnered a mixed doubles gold medal, and she earned a bronze in singles and a silver in doubles in 2009.

“I learned how to work not only with American players but players from all nations and in different combinations,” Dy said.

Her experience working and playing with players from all over the globe is without doubt invaluable to her coaching career, and that experience is irreplaceable.

“This is her first official year in collegiate coaching, and I think she’s still getting her feet wet,” Dougherty said. “She’s only been here two weeks and we’ve traveled both weekends, but she’s done a great job.”

Sophomore Aimee Tarun experienced Dy’s in-match presence for the first time this past weekend at the Drake Jamboree in Des Moines. Tarun went 4-0 in singles at the tournament.

She said Dy’s coaching during the match was helpful, and the coach has an intuitive grasp on how to handle each player individually within their matches.

“It’s been really good having Denise come in,” Tarun said. “She’s made the effort to get to know each of us and understand our personalities. She knows what she’s talking about. She’s a good player and a good coach.”

Dy said her military-science minor from Washington will help with her coaching.

“In tennis you have to be a little bit of a drill-sergeant, and you also need to feel-it-out with finesse sometimes,” Dy said. “It takes a little bit of both.”

Dougherty said the transition has been smooth. The six-year head coach said the team seems to have taken a liking to Dy in her very short time here.

“She certainly knows what she’s doing out there,” said Dougherty. “She’s been a great energy source at practice, has really good insight, and is obviously a fabulous player. She is very good tactically, she is technically sound, and a huge addition to our program.”

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