A Second Family at The U for Wagner and Vallverdu
By Kevin Ivany
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Eight ITA All-America honors, eight All-ACC selections, eight Sweet 16 appearances, four Elite Eight berths, three NCAA Singles Championship Final Fours and 265 singles wins in eight seasons.
Accolades built to represent an entire tennis team, but at the University of Miami these numbers constitute two illustrious careers and important pieces to head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews’ coaching staff.
Even though associate head coach Laura Vallverdu and student assistant coach Stephanie Wagner’s playing careers at The U may have concluded, their love for Miami has continued to flourish.
“Steffi and Lau will do anything for the team and it is really because they love the University of Miami,” Yaroshuk-Tews explained. “They know how much the school has given them and continues to give them and they are grateful of everything they have received from Miami. And I know it is mutual because the University is grateful for them.”
For both Wagner and Vallverdu, choosing to leave their homes of Amberg, Germany, and Valencia, Venezuela, respectively, was surprisingly simple due to the idea of playing in a city and environment that felt close to home.
“I used to train in Miami—I knew the area very well. I had a lot of friends in Miami and it was as if they were my second family,” Vallverdu said. “I had people here, my brother, [Daniel, an All-American on the men’s tennis team], was already attending Miami and he was only a semester ahead of me.”
According to Wagner, deciding to play at The U was “very spontaneous.”
“At first I didn’t want to come to the United States and play college tennis, but my brother, [Albert], a year older than me, was at Louisville and he told me to definitely go on a college visit, if I were to get an offer,” Wagner said. “That is what happened, I came to Miami, I met the coaches, as well as the team, and that is how I decided that I wanted to be here right away. I didn’t want to look at any other schools because I felt comfortable here and knew I would be in good hands.”
From the day these women landed in Coral Gables for their respective freshman seasons, up until this upcoming weekend’s Miami Spring Invite, for which they will be coaching, there has been a competitive nature that they have carried to help them become the winningest players in the history of the program.
“Coach Lau refuses to lose,” junior Silvia Fuentes said. “I think she hates losing more than she loves winning. She’s always pushing us, and herself, to be great in everything we do.”
Graduating with 131 career singles victories in the spring of 2010, Vallverdu ranked first in all-time wins at Miami before her ex-teammate, Bianca Eichkorn, reached 133 the following year. Last season, Wagner ended her career with 134, surpassing both of them.
Although these numbers may say otherwise, winning was not always easy for both Vallverdu and Wagner.
Like all great players, both recalled a defining moment in their careers that helped develop and mature them into who they are today.
Vallverdu called to mind competing in ITA South Regional Championships during the fall of her freshman season as being one of those moments, remembering a second round match set for 8 a.m.
“It was miserable, rainy and cloudy. I was miserable, I thought I was too good for this and I went in and I lost it,” Vallverdu said. “And Paige, I will never forget [what she said]. I dropped my bag and in a positive way she told me, ‘If you are able to change this arrogant attitude that you have and channel it in the right way you are going to be one of the best players in the country.’”
At first, being a 19-year-old kid, Vallverdu said, “I didn’t understand what she was saying.”
However, as the season progressed, it started to sink in and now as a coach it is something she explains to incoming freshman who wear the Canes’ colors.
“We talk about this with the girls,” she said, “discussing the learning curve. I tell them, you have been playing tennis forever, it doesn’t matter if you are a freshman. Just adapt and move on.”
As for Wagner, Vallverdu and Yaroshuk-Tews both described her as being “lazy” during her freshman year, but when it was time to turn it on, she would do just that.
“Now that she is done, I can say this. She is a friend, but I still feel like she is my player. Steffi was soft,” Vallverdu said. “She was so tough mentally; however, she didn’t know she could be tough physically . . . She was a little lazy during practice. She would pretend to practice, but once you’d tell her, ‘Let’s go, you have to play this girl,’ she would turn it on. It is unbelievable what the best kids can do, and you can’t really teach that. You either have it or you don’t.”
“Steffi came in as a total hothead. She was both soft and lazy, but she could hit a winner from anywhere on the court,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “But this was a kid who decided to listen. She very easily could have decided to push me away and decide to be stubborn and be average, but she made the decision to be exceptional.”
By playing from within and listening to her coaches on how to improve each and every day, Wagner not only spent her four-year career as a student of the game, but a teacher as well.
“She helped me so much last semester and is always supportive and there for me,” junior Sinead Lohan, the sixth-ranked player in the nation, said. “I know I can always go to her no matter what. She has matured a lot and she sees what’s happening and understands from both the player’s side and coaching side.”
Once it was all said and done, and both Wagner and Vallverdu had to hang up their rackets, one thing remained in the back of their minds: The University of Miami.
“I think it says a lot about the sense of unity we have at The U,” Fuentes said. “It’s so hard to leave Miami because that would mean to leave our family. Our bond as a team is very strong.”
Continuing her sixth season as a member of Yaroshuk-Tews’ staff and second as the associate head coach, Vallverdu still loves every bit of being part of The U.
“It’s cheesy, but honestly, to me, it means my life because it has not only given me so much, I have given them a lot, and it just makes a nice healthy relationship, if you want to call it like that,” Vallverdu explained. “Especially with Paige, we don’t talk about it often, but she knows this and I can’t thank her enough. I think it means my life and I have built my life and everything I have around here.”
After graduating from Miami in 2010, Vallverdu spent one season as an assistant coach at Barry University, where she studied sports psychology, before returning to what she calls her “second family.” There, she helped guide the Buccaneers to a 27-1 record and their first national championship, and she was named the ITA Division II South Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
However, as she explained, there was still something missing, which was uncovered when Yaroshuk-Tews gave her a call and offered an opportunity to work alongside her at Miami. That way she could get a better feel for Division I coaching while earning a master’s degree.
“Number one, she is a true Hurricane, through and through. She was the type of kid who would die for me. She would die for me; she would die for the program,” Yaroshuk-Tews said of why she wanted Vallverdu on her staff. “She was one of those kids who if I were to say go at a red light, she would go. She put that much trust in me. She has a really good perspective on tennis, communications and people—she has people skills and she is not afraid to tell me when I am wrong.”
Six years after Vallverdu and with a full collegiate career under her belt, Wagner sat in a nearly identical situation of not wanting to leave what she too refers to as “second family” or the game of tennis. Like Vallverdu, Wagner was also granted an opportunity to spend a season with the team from the sideline.
“Steffi Wagner really has a special place in my heart,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “She went through a lot her freshman year, she was in the hospital, she had mono, she just went through a lot. To still have her around the program helping us and to still have her visible and around the team is really big.”
With the start of dual matches around the corner, Vallverdu and Wagner will once again be doing everything in their power to help the Hurricanes conclude each match with a victory.
Chris Beltran also contributed to this story.
