Bader follows family coaching tradition

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Former MSU women’s tennis standout Christine Bader always wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and coach at the collegiate level.

Christine’s father, Richard, was a swimming coach for 17 years, including 12 years with the Spartans. He is now the director of operations for MSU’s basketball team.

Although her father has amassed quite the coaching résumé, Bader is quickly catching up with him. Bader, who graduated in May, was named the head coach of the Indiana-based Evansville women’s tennis team.

“Coaching is something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Bader, an Okemos native. “I’ve always admired how my dad coached and his approach to everything that he did.”

Bader’s age, 21, makes her the youngest person to have coached at Evansville since the program moved to Division I in 1977.

John Stanley, Evansville’s athletic director and an assistant women’s tennis coach, didn’t consider Bader’s age in the decision.

Despite roughly 30 applicants for the position, he wasn’t too concerned about hiring someone with more experience.

He said after Bader traveled to Evansville to meet with him and a handful of returning players, he was confident the recent college graduate was exactly what the program needed.

“I found her maturity, leadership skills, talent level and organizational abilities to be excellent,” he said. “I knew there would be a degree of risk with a young coach, but there are a lot of very successful coaches out there that started young.

“I know she is going to grow into a great head coach from the head start she has now.”

At MSU, Bader was a three-time captain, twice an All-Big Ten honoree, and was named the Most Valuable Player her senior season.

More importantly, Bader was an inspiration to a young Spartans squad that featured six freshmen on a team with 11 total players.

“Christine was our senior leader to look up to and learn how everything is supposed to be done,” sophomore Whitney Wilson said. “She helped all of us freshmen get adjusted and really led us by example.”

Bader said her time spent working with underclassmen at MSU left her with a great foundation to build upon.

“My main goal is to help people become better with their four years at college,” she said. “I’m going to relate to my players by using my experience and taking what I learned from MSU and apply it to Evansville.”

Bader’s father said he couldn’t be more fired up about his daughter’s decision to pursue a coaching career.

“Any parent is excited when their child goes to college and has a job right when they graduate,” he said. “But I’m especially excited for her to be going into coaching and I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Richard always let his daughter tag around the teams he was coaching – a lifestyle that impacted Christine’s outlook on sports.

“She’s really seen it all,” he said. “From my years with coaching she was able to meet a lot of the younger players, and now with my new position she has been exposed to the administrative aspect of college athletics.

“It’s almost like she has been training for a coaching job her whole life.”

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