As part of ongoing efforts to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Blue, Boise State Athletics will be releasing various stories about The Blue’s impact on Boise State, the city of Boise and the state of Idaho. Here is one of those stories.
Originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, Boise State Men’s Tennis Head Coach Luke Shields never imagined his tennis career would lead him to Boise, Idaho.
“We were in a small town out in the middle of nowhere with 40,000 people,” Luke Shields said. “There were no indoor tennis courts, but any opportunity that we got we took advantage of it, and Greg [Patton] provided some of those opportunities as a USTA [United States Tennis Association] coach.”
Patton, former Boise State men’s tennis coach, took a chance on the Colorado native as a coach at the junior level.
“Back then the USTA kind of favored the Florida kids and the SoCal kids and they encouraged the top juniors in the country to move to SoCal and Florida,” Shields said. “But Greg looked out for us.”
Previously building a relationship with him during his junior career, Shields was Patton’s first call when he became the Boise State men’s tennis head coach.
After only visiting the city of trees a handful of times, Shields was particularly drawn to the ever-evolving blue turf.