Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Athletic and Academic Excellence at FAU
6/25/2021 10:12:00 AM | Baseball, General, Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis
A Tale of Three Coaches and their Three Scholar Athletes
See expanded stories written by Graduate Student Wajih Albaroudi:
Bianca Biglione HERE
Alex Gitin HERE
Austin Langham HERE
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At Florida Atlantic University, President John Kelly has popularized his battle cry of the "relentless pursuit of excellence."
At FAU in the Department of Athletics, I am most acquainted with three extraordinary head coaches who build excellence on and off the playing fields. They are Ricardo Gonzalez, head men's tennis coach, Caroline Wheelen, head women's tennis coach, and John McCormack, head baseball coach.
Each of these coaches combines a unique and outstanding blend of professional and personal qualities.
Ricardo played collegiate tennis with teammate John Isner and was a National Champion at the University of Georgia. As coach at FAU, he has had double-digit victories in each of his first six years atop the program, prior to the pandemic-shortened 2020 spring campaign, and the postponed and ultimately shortened 2021 spring season. Despite all the ups and downs as well as starts and stops of 2021, Ricardo still led the Owls to as high as a No. 55 national ranking, and the team advanced to the Conference USA semifinal round. Individually, Kevin Huempfner was named C-USA Newcomer of the Year - the program's third in a row. The team's highest national showing in nearly two decades came in 2019, No. 45, and that season included a flawless 9-0 record at the FAU Tennis Complex, and the No. 1 seed in the C-USA Championship.
Caroline was an All-American tennis player at the University of Miami. She is the only head tennis coach to lead the Owls to a conference championship and a NCAA regional and most recently guided the Owls to a No. 52 national ranking, the highest in program history. Â After 13 years as a teaching pro, she returned to FAU as an assistant coach. In her first season she was an instrumental part of Aliona Bolsova's success. She was a member of the Dean's List received C-USA academic recognition, was 19-0 in singles play and climbed as high as No. 2 in the national rankings. Boslov garnered Conference USA Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year honors. Since turning professional she has risen to a world WTA ranking of 88. Under Caroline's leadership the Owls achieved the programs highest ITA season ending ranking, #52, and are poised to break into the country's most elite in 2022.
John, a member of the Palm Beach County Hall of Fame and the FAU Athletics Hall of Fame, was an outstanding local high school baseball player at St. Pope John Paul and then again at then Indian River Community College and College of Boca Raton, now Lynn University. He has served FAU baseball for 31 years, 13 as the team's skipper. In those 13 years, he has tallied a 443-275-2 record while leading the Owls to four conference regular season titles. These titles include two in the Sun Belt, in 2010 and 2012 and two in C-USA, in 2016 and 2019 as well as one Sun Belt Tournament title in 2013. He has been a part of every FAU NCAA Regional, directing six (2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019). He is a three-time Coach of the Year (2010 Sun Belt Conference, 2019 Conference USA Keith LeClair Coach of the Year and the 2019 ABCA/Diamond Central Region Coach of the Year). What touched my heart the most about John was that while undergoing surgery and chemotherapy he continued to lead his team to a top-20 national ranking. He is one of my heroes on-and-off the field and he also serves as ambassador of college baseball. For example, John is an executive member of the Board of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and the NCAA Division I Chair.
These coaches nurture excellence on an off the tennis courts and baseball fields. For example, perhaps my most outstanding mentee since I left Harvard Medical School has been Alexander (Sasha) Gitin ('17), who is currently entering his third year of medical school as an honor student at the University of Florida. He maintained a straight-A average while playing No. 1 for Ricardo. Sasha and I have coauthored peer reviewed publications in the American Journal of Medicine, Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. A close second to Sasha is Bianca Biglione. Bianca ('17), currently entering her fourth year as an honors student at the Charles E.  Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. In 2017, Bianca was FAU's female Scholar-Athlete and a member of the NCAA Division I District 4 Academic At-Large team. She and I have coauthored a peer reviewed publication in the American Journal of Medicine. Last, but not least, John referred Austin Langham ('17), to me who is also an outstanding scholar and athlete. Perhaps sharing the modesty of his baseball coach, in all my experiences Austin is the only mentee I tried to convince to become and MD but he chose to be a PA. Not surprisingly, he is completing his degree as a PA as an honors student.
I am confident that there are many other such examples at FAU of coaches and their scholar-athletes. I chose these three coaches and their scholar athletes because all six are the ones I know.
Last but not least, as a prior longstanding member of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee at FAU, I can tell you that these three coaches compete in an outstanding fashion against programs with similar budgets as well as programs with virtually unlimited resources. I feel somewhat qualified to opine because after my parents, my most influential mentors were my basketball and baseball coaches, and I believe Sasha, Bianca, and Austin would agree.
These three outstanding coaches and their three equally outstanding scholar-athletes are outstanding examples, not just for President Kelly's "relentless pursuit of excellence," but also the relentless achievement of excellence in athletic performance and character building with the resources afforded to them. These three coaches are examples of FAU mentors who usher outstanding students through their collegiate journey and towards their academic goals while nurturing their athletic abilities to lead them to the thresholds of their own minds and athletic performances. Â
Charles H. Hennekens, MD, DrPH is the first Sir Richard Doll Professor and Senior Academic Adviser to the Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. He was formerly the first Sir John Snow and Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Queens College and was Captain and MVP of his varsity basketball and baseball teams and inducted into both their Achievement and Athletic Halls of Fame.
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Bianca Biglione HERE
Alex Gitin HERE
Austin Langham HERE
Â
At Florida Atlantic University, President John Kelly has popularized his battle cry of the "relentless pursuit of excellence."
At FAU in the Department of Athletics, I am most acquainted with three extraordinary head coaches who build excellence on and off the playing fields. They are Ricardo Gonzalez, head men's tennis coach, Caroline Wheelen, head women's tennis coach, and John McCormack, head baseball coach.
Each of these coaches combines a unique and outstanding blend of professional and personal qualities.
Ricardo played collegiate tennis with teammate John Isner and was a National Champion at the University of Georgia. As coach at FAU, he has had double-digit victories in each of his first six years atop the program, prior to the pandemic-shortened 2020 spring campaign, and the postponed and ultimately shortened 2021 spring season. Despite all the ups and downs as well as starts and stops of 2021, Ricardo still led the Owls to as high as a No. 55 national ranking, and the team advanced to the Conference USA semifinal round. Individually, Kevin Huempfner was named C-USA Newcomer of the Year - the program's third in a row. The team's highest national showing in nearly two decades came in 2019, No. 45, and that season included a flawless 9-0 record at the FAU Tennis Complex, and the No. 1 seed in the C-USA Championship.
Caroline was an All-American tennis player at the University of Miami. She is the only head tennis coach to lead the Owls to a conference championship and a NCAA regional and most recently guided the Owls to a No. 52 national ranking, the highest in program history. Â After 13 years as a teaching pro, she returned to FAU as an assistant coach. In her first season she was an instrumental part of Aliona Bolsova's success. She was a member of the Dean's List received C-USA academic recognition, was 19-0 in singles play and climbed as high as No. 2 in the national rankings. Boslov garnered Conference USA Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year honors. Since turning professional she has risen to a world WTA ranking of 88. Under Caroline's leadership the Owls achieved the programs highest ITA season ending ranking, #52, and are poised to break into the country's most elite in 2022.
John, a member of the Palm Beach County Hall of Fame and the FAU Athletics Hall of Fame, was an outstanding local high school baseball player at St. Pope John Paul and then again at then Indian River Community College and College of Boca Raton, now Lynn University. He has served FAU baseball for 31 years, 13 as the team's skipper. In those 13 years, he has tallied a 443-275-2 record while leading the Owls to four conference regular season titles. These titles include two in the Sun Belt, in 2010 and 2012 and two in C-USA, in 2016 and 2019 as well as one Sun Belt Tournament title in 2013. He has been a part of every FAU NCAA Regional, directing six (2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019). He is a three-time Coach of the Year (2010 Sun Belt Conference, 2019 Conference USA Keith LeClair Coach of the Year and the 2019 ABCA/Diamond Central Region Coach of the Year). What touched my heart the most about John was that while undergoing surgery and chemotherapy he continued to lead his team to a top-20 national ranking. He is one of my heroes on-and-off the field and he also serves as ambassador of college baseball. For example, John is an executive member of the Board of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and the NCAA Division I Chair.
These coaches nurture excellence on an off the tennis courts and baseball fields. For example, perhaps my most outstanding mentee since I left Harvard Medical School has been Alexander (Sasha) Gitin ('17), who is currently entering his third year of medical school as an honor student at the University of Florida. He maintained a straight-A average while playing No. 1 for Ricardo. Sasha and I have coauthored peer reviewed publications in the American Journal of Medicine, Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. A close second to Sasha is Bianca Biglione. Bianca ('17), currently entering her fourth year as an honors student at the Charles E.  Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. In 2017, Bianca was FAU's female Scholar-Athlete and a member of the NCAA Division I District 4 Academic At-Large team. She and I have coauthored a peer reviewed publication in the American Journal of Medicine. Last, but not least, John referred Austin Langham ('17), to me who is also an outstanding scholar and athlete. Perhaps sharing the modesty of his baseball coach, in all my experiences Austin is the only mentee I tried to convince to become and MD but he chose to be a PA. Not surprisingly, he is completing his degree as a PA as an honors student.
I am confident that there are many other such examples at FAU of coaches and their scholar-athletes. I chose these three coaches and their scholar athletes because all six are the ones I know.
Last but not least, as a prior longstanding member of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee at FAU, I can tell you that these three coaches compete in an outstanding fashion against programs with similar budgets as well as programs with virtually unlimited resources. I feel somewhat qualified to opine because after my parents, my most influential mentors were my basketball and baseball coaches, and I believe Sasha, Bianca, and Austin would agree.
These three outstanding coaches and their three equally outstanding scholar-athletes are outstanding examples, not just for President Kelly's "relentless pursuit of excellence," but also the relentless achievement of excellence in athletic performance and character building with the resources afforded to them. These three coaches are examples of FAU mentors who usher outstanding students through their collegiate journey and towards their academic goals while nurturing their athletic abilities to lead them to the thresholds of their own minds and athletic performances. Â
Charles H. Hennekens, MD, DrPH is the first Sir Richard Doll Professor and Senior Academic Adviser to the Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU. He was formerly the first Sir John Snow and Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Queens College and was Captain and MVP of his varsity basketball and baseball teams and inducted into both their Achievement and Athletic Halls of Fame.
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