University of Miami women's tennis coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews was at a family barbecue Sunday when her husband, Scott, picked up a football and flung it at a distant palm tree.
''Let's see who can get to five first!'' Scott Tews shouted to his wife and her brother, Ernie. The most accurate thrower, he said, would get a Starbucks coffee of choice.
No matter that Ernie Yaroshuk Jr. played minor-league baseball in the New York Yankees organization as an outfielder. Yaroshuk-Tews promptly tossed the football over the pool and into the palm tree five times, beating her husband and brother. The Starbucks -- ''a plain old coffee; I'm strictly meat and potatoes'' -- will wait until after she delivers her second child in early July.
For now, Yaroshuk-Tews, an excruciatingly disciplined and competitive Miami native, and the mother of 2-year-old Emma, is focused on the first two rounds of the NCAA women's tennis team championships Friday and Saturday at UM. The 12th-ranked Hurricanes (15-5, 8-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) are one of 12 programs nationally to have been awarded a regional four consecutive years.
Credit that, Yaroshuk-Tews said, to hard-working players.
Credit that, her players said, to an extraordinary coach.
''You only have one go-around,'' Yaroshuk-Tews, 34, said. ``You might as well do it right.''
Yaroshuk-Tews became UM's winningest women's tennis coach April 12 after earning her her 132nd victory since being promoted to head coach in 2001. In March, Yaroshuk-Tews was inducted into the Dade County Tennis Hall of Fame, joining two-time Olympic gold medalist Mary Joe Fernandez, USTA national men's coach and former UM coach Jay Berger and UM graduate and four-time U.S. doubles champion Gardnar Mulloy.
'GREAT MENTOR'
''She has been a great coach and great mentor for four years,'' senior Caren Seenauth said. ``She coaches us hard and demands a lot, but once you get used to it you have to step back and admire her.''
Said freshman Bianca Eichkorn of Germany: ``You have days when you feel bad and are homesick, but she talks to you and gives you the power you need.''
Top-seeded UM will play fourth-seeded Quinnipiac (9-10) at 11 a.m. Friday, with third-seeded Florida International (13-9) meeting second-seeded Notre Dame (21-8) at 3 p.m. The winners will meet in the regional final at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The regional winner advances to the NCAA nationals in Tulsa, Okla., from May 15-20, with the individual championships beginning there May 21.
Last year, Yaroshuk-Tews coached Audra Cohen, a two-time Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Player of the Year, to an NCAA singles title, the first in UM history. The previous year, Yaroshuk-Tews led the Hurricanes to an unlikely NCAA final against Stanford. For the five academic years before 2007-08, UM had the top-ranked player in the nation -- Megan Bradley for three years, and then Cohen.
The Hurricanes, led by All-American Laura Vallverdu, were dealt a blow when, two months before school started, the top recruit in the country, Julia Cohen, defected to Florida. Few expected UM to rebound.
''It shows how resilient the girls are,'' Yaroshuk-Tews said. 'I'm coming into the year thinking, `Oh my gosh, this is going to be tough.' But the young players excelled under pressure and the older girls were great examples.''
Although Yaroshuk-Tews (133-42) has UM in her genes, she chose to play collegiately at UCLA after taking a family vacation to Los Angeles when she was about 10 and ''falling in love'' with the tennis center that was built for the 1984 Olympic Games. Her father, Ernie Sr., a UM baseball player whose last season in 1963 was legendary coach Ron Fraser's first in Coral Gables, is a member of the UM Sports Hall of Fame. He told his daughter after she informed him she would one day play at UCLA: ``If this is where you want to go to school, you better start practicing harder.''
And that is what she did. Every day for years, Yaroshuk-Tews would wait outside in the driveway for her father, the general manager of a catering business, to come home.
''She'd be sitting there with a hopper full of balls, a tennis bag, her towel and a jug full of water,'' Ernie Sr. said. ``I'd say, `Paige, give me five minutes.'
``She was so disciplined at a young age it was almost scary -- the only girl who played on an all-boys soccer team and had no problems slide tackling right into them. Always a very good student. No falsities, no camouflage. She talks to you the way she would talk to me the way she would talk to her superiors.''
TIES TO UM
Ernie Sr., 66, played for the Miami Marlins in the Phillies organization for a year and a half and still has season tickets to UM baseball, football and basketball games.
Paige, a 1991 graduate of Killian High, grew up going to all of them.
''We grew up in the Orange Bowl,'' Yaroshuk-Tews said. "I remember watching Doug Flutie throw his Hail Mary, Oklahoma and Bosworth, when UM played at the Knight Center.
"That was our entertainment.''
The players said Yaroshuk-Tews has softened since having a child, but she still demands impeccable behavior, top-notch academics, a rigorous fitness regime and overall consistency.
''I love the fact that they come into a program and it's not just about tennis,'' she said. ``It's about academics and growing up as people. When they leave here they're more mature, more independent, more accountable.
"It's easy to have a great season, but it's very difficult to have a great career. That's how I come to work every day and lead my life here, making decisions for the betterment of a program, not the betterment of a season.''
