Illia Ziamtsou
Background:
Illia was a member of the men's tennis team from January 2008-Spring 2011. During his college career he was part of a team that won two conference championships, including the first ever CAA title. at UNCW. He was voted the outstanding player at the 2009 CAA Championship and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. Illia ranks third all-time in doubles victories and sixth in singles wins.
Testimonial:
"Hello everyone!! This is Illia Ziamtsou writing from West Lafayette, Ind., where I'm working on my Master's Degree in Computer Graphics Technology from Purdue University. In this short article I want to give everyone an update on what I'm doing and some of my memories from playing tennis at UNCW.
It was hard to stop playing tennis after I decided that I was going to graduate school. As funny as it might sound, I don't remember my not playing tennis in my life. I started playing at the age of six. I was in kindergarten then. I remember my first practice and the first racquet I ever owned. I am now working as a volunteer assistant coach at Purdue and am happy to still be involved in college tennis.
After being a Master's student for some time and observing other people, I'm really starting to realize how much my time as a UNCW athlete benefitted me. One of the most important things I learned while being on the team is the value of persistence and being willing to out-work the people around you. As Coach DuBois used to call it, "being scrappy." I learned that if you try enough and keep working hard, you can always be successful. This single idea keeps me going everyday, no matter what I do. I remember Coach talking about how good teams just "hang around," and work for their opportunity. At the time I did not really understand how universally this can be applied. It was no surprise to me when I recently read in a book that the reason 90 percent of people fail is because they get frustrated after first signs of defeat, which only enforced my belief that being "scrappy" and sticking around actually pays off.
Coach always spoke of the value of surrounding yourself with great people that always keep you motivated. "If you do not have these people near you, then read about as many of them as possible", he always said. Recently I have read autobiographies of famous American people such as Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, Walter Chrysler, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison and many others. They are all widely known, but by their own admission, failed many times. They were all willing to work through some of their failures and that's how they became successful.
During my time as a tennis player at UNCW, our teams accomplished many things and historical firsts. I never thought many of them were possible when I first arrived. This goes for not only the team, but for me personally. I know the values I learned there will help me the rest of my life and I am truly thankful that I chose to go to UNCW."
Coach DuBois on Illia Ziamtsou:
"I have so many great memories of having Illia on the team. I will always remember the night before the 2009 CAA Finals he said to me after our final team meeting in his strong Russian accent, "Coach, tomorrow I will win for the team or be carried off in an ambulance." Of course, the match ended up coming down to him in the third set and after fighting off several match points against him, he clinched the match for us. Illia said later that he never thought he would have been able to perform like that in such an intense pressure situation. He talked about a practice we had done much earlier in the spring where I created a very challenging goal and added a lot of pressure to it. The players had a set amount of time to accomplish the goal and if they didn't, they had to come back at 6 am the next morning to try again. Illia and one other player had to come back at 6 am and it was still dark, so we had to turn our car headlights on the courts so they could practice. Illia eventually was able to deal with the pressure and accomplished the goal. He told me the confidence he earned from that day helped him deliver us the conference championship. It will be a coaching moment that I will always remember.
