Highly sought Albrecht chooses UNF

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Continuing to build a championship caliber program for its first year of unrestricted NCAA Division I competition in 2009-10, the University of North Florida men's tennis team announced the signing of Taylor Albrecht, one of the highest ranked players to ever be recruited by UNF, on Friday.

“As a coach that has been building this Division I program for five years, this is great feedback that our focus on player development is the right path towards building a successful team,” UNF head coach Igal Buberman said. “We are very pleased to have Taylor become a part of the Osprey family."

Albrecht, born in Barcelona, Spain, and a Sarasota Christian School (Sarasota, Fla.) graduate, lettered in both tennis and soccer during his high school career. As a sophomore, he showed his athleticism, being named an all-district forward as he helped his soccer squad to an 11-1 record and a district championship.

"Not only he has tremendous talent and potential, but his behavior on and off the court shows that he is a mature young man with clear goals in life," Buberman said. “He comes from a great family that has stimulated and supported him throughout his career. His parents (Horst and Sharon) have shown a great deal of commitment to the Ospreys from day one of the recruiting process, and they are just as excited as he is to start his career as a student-athlete at UNF."

Performing in the classroom shines through as an equally important task as performing on the court for Albrecht, with the six-foot-four-inch student-athlete scoring a 3.5 GPA at Sarasota Christian. Albrecht certainly enjoyed his fair share of success on the court as well.

Ranking nationally as the No. 91 recruit according to TennisRecruiting.net, Albrecht claimed the title of the ITP Team Zonal 14's tournament before soaring to a straight-set win in the championship match of the 2007 ATP Gator Bowl in the boys' 16 division. He also competed in the USTA's Kalamazoo tournament in 2007 and attended Next Generation Tennis Camp and Next Generation Tennis Academy.

Considering the level of tennis that has come to be expected from players in the state of Florida and the amount of resources available to enhance players' plane of play, Buberman understands the importance of creating a top-notch atmosphere at UNF.

"Florida is a tennis state, where there are tons of academies and players from all over the world,” Buberman said. “These players train with high quality coaches at high quality facilities. Our goal at UNF is to provide student-athletes with a great training environment while they obtain a degree to back up their future in life.”

While Albrecht no doubt has the tools to be successful both athletically and academically for the Ospreys, he lists becoming a professional tennis player as one of his future goals.

“Through our training regime that focuses on player development, we expect that after four years in our program players will be close to reaching their full potential,” Buberman said. “This is evident in Graham Edgar (will be a junior in 2009-10), who was ranked No. 50 in Florida and finished the 2008-09 season with a 26-10 record Division I record."

Buberman has been focused on player development during his tenure of nearly a decade at UNF and has seen many instances of that philosophy coming to fruition. Not only did he lead the Ospreys and Lady Ospreys through their inaugural seasons of Division I competition with phenomenal success, he produced the first Division I all-conference honorees on the men's and women's teams and coached the first players to earn a national ranking in UNF's Division I history (Florencia Torres and Ina Durcakova ranked No. 59 in doubles).

In 2009-10, Albrecht and UNF will make a run at the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season title and will be seeking an appearance in A-Sun and NCAA postseason play. The Ospreys will be fully eligible for all postseason play with the four-year transition into Division I now a thing of the past.

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