Q&a With Tim Mang:

Corona del Mar High boys’ tennis coach Tim Mang, who announced his retirement from coaching last week, has coached at CdM since 1993. In that time, the Sea Kings won three CIF Southern Section division titles, and were also three-time winners of the National High School All-American tournament that Mang created.

The Daily Pilot asked Mang about some of his favorite memories.

Question: What are some of the biggest changes that have happened in high school tennis since you’ve been coaching?

Answer: Two changes, the ones that I’m still against. One is the scoring system. I think doubles should get more points than singles. We had that for awhile, then the CIF voted it down. That was really great, as far as your strategy goes. We had a point and a half for doubles, and a point for singles.

You had to do some coaching. A lot of these guys, they don’t coach, they just put their singles players out there. Their singles players are so good, they’ve got their pros, and you don’t have to spend that much time. But if you work with your doubles, you can say, “Hey, if we sweep doubles we’re going to win this thing.” The top high schools really liked that, because those guys are pretty good coaches.

The other change, when I was on the [CIF Southern Section] advisory committee, I was the head of the Division I team championships. What we would do, there were Division I, II, III, IV and V, and they would all play [the championship match] in different areas on a neutral site. It would be after school, like a regular match, so all the kids and the parents could go watch these matches ...They had all kinds of student body and kids rooting them on, but now it’s all at one spot [the Claremont Club]. I think it’s a shame, because a lot of people can’t watch the finals. It’s at Claremont, it’s during the day, and the kids are in school.

Q: I guess, technologically, the racquets are a lot more advanced, and things like that. Some people would say that’s made the level of the game higher.

A: I disagree with that. I think more along the lines of [John] McEnroe or [Jimmy] Connors. There are less shots made now with the power racquets. You stand on the baseline and bash now. Connors wanted to start a thing where everyone had to play with a wood racquet, and I think that’s a great idea. It’s a different game. Guys like [Ilie] Nastase, and those guys, had beautiful finesse shots.