Sept. 7, 2004

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - With Phil Chamberlain's recent promotion to the Tournament Director's position of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships held each February at The Racquet Club of Memphis, four-year assistant coach Paul Goebel will assume the day-to-day coaching responsibilities for the team for the 2004-05 season, it was announced Tuesday.

Goebel, a 1994 graduate of Middle Tennessee State, has spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach under Chamberlain. An All-America honoree during his senior season (1994) for the Blue Raiders, Goebel was a four-time all-conference honoree and was the MTSU student athlete of the year in 1994. Following his collegiate playing career, Goebel served as a student assistant coach and also played professionally. In 1999, Goebel was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the Men's 25 and over group.

Coming to Memphis in 1996, Goebel also served as a teaching professional at The Racquet Club, where he taught top national and southern-ranked juniors.

"Paul has all the qualifications to take over the program," Chamberlain said. "We work great as a team and between the two of us, we have worked really hard to make elevate this team to a highly-competitive Division I program. We have made a number of improvements, from the courts, to the schedule, to fundraising, to recruiting, and I know Paul will continue to work at that high level and will push to make us even more competitive."

Goebel began taking over some additional responsibilities as early as June, when he began putting together the Tigers' 2004-05 schedule. The schedule features 11 nationally-ranked opponents, including nine ranked opponents on the road. Memphis will face No. 5 Ole Miss and No. 16 Vanderbilt on the road and will also travel to Arizona to face three ranked opponents on their home courts.

Chamberlain intends to remain active with the program, assisting in fundraising, special events planning and recruiting, while Goebel will handle all the day-to-day training and travel responsibilities.

The Tigers' next major activity will be the ITA/Southeast Regional, which will be hosted by the University of Memphis at The Racquet Club of Memphis beginning Oct. 14th and running through Oct. 18th. Mississippi State's Romain Ambert won last year's single crown in that tournament and Georgia's Bo Hodge and John Isner won the doubles crown in Memphis last fall before falling in the NCAA Doubles Championship Finals over the spring.

Memphis opens its 2004-05 schedule at Middle Tennessee in the Blue Raiders' annual Fall Invitational, next Saturday, Sept. 17-19th.