Craig Tiley is the Midwest's trump card in a deck full of West Coast tennis schools where beautiful weather and beach babes are a powerful enticement for eager young men.

Tiley, in his 11th year as head coach of the Illinois men's tennis team, doesn't have the luxury of using any kind of scenery as a recruiting tool.

Yet he gets some of the best high school tennis players in the country to choose Illinois over traditional West Coast powerhouses such as UCLA, Stanford and USC.

Chris Martin, a junior on the Illini squad, is one of those talented players.

"Everyone that comes to Illinois to play tennis comes here because of Craig," Martin said. "He knows more about the game of tennis than anyone else in college coaching, and he works harder than everyone else in coaching."

It's difficult to dispute either of these claims considering what Tiley has accomplished in his tenure at Illinois.

He inherited a struggling program as interim coach in 1993. That team was winless in the Big Ten. He then became head coach in 1994.

Ten seasons later, in 2003, he led the Illini to a seventh straight Big Ten regular season crown, the NCAA team, singles and doubles titles. He was also named National Coach of the Year for the second time. Despite any experience as a head coach before joining the Illini, Tiley has been a sheer amazement.

"I wrote a 10-year plan in 1994," Tiley said. "It was simply this: after three years to win a Big Ten title, after five years to repeat as Big Ten champions and have national consistency, and then by 10 years to have won individual national titles and a team national title. It worked out perfectly."

The plan was an eight-page document. Tiley remembers there were exactly 47 goals listed on it.

Meeting those goals was difficult. But Tiley is not the type of person to let obstacles deter him. He's a fighter, a quality he inherited from his father, a former professional boxer.

Tiley grew up in South Africa — he still has the accent that many American women adore.

He was a two-sport standout as a youth, both a highly ranked tennis player and a member of the national field hockey team.

Before college, he already had played in professional tennis tournaments and earned a professional ranking as high as No. 60. In 1980, Tiley entered the University of Stellenbosch, where he lettered in tennis.

He turned professional in 1982. He competed in Africa, Europe and the United States until 1986, when he said he realized he wouldn't make enough money playing tennis. He returned to study at the University of Texas at Tyler.

There, from 1986 to 1991, he earned a master's degree in kinesiology. He had always been interested in coaching.

After Texas, he came to Illinois for a doctorate in physiology and psychology. He was also director of instruction at Atkins Tennis Center. But he traded dreams of a doctorate for his 10-year plan as head men's tennis coach.

He didn't follow his father's boxing footsteps, but Tiley's plan might have had some people thinking that he took a few punches to the head.

"People, especially other coaches, thought I was crazy," Tiley said.

By all accounts he was. He intended to take a bad program and make it not just good, but the best.

He focused on making the Illinois program known as one that developed players. He searched for unrecruited talent that he thought he could teach.

When some top players finally took notice of Illinois' progress, Tiley made sure to sell them the program aggressively. He became a salesman, and, of course, a good one.

"I always had the attitude that I had to go sell air conditioners at the North Pole," Tiley said.

Or tennis in Champaign, where playing outdoors year-round is impossible, cornfields dominate much of the scenery and the odor of manure is in the air on many days.

"When we're on campus, every hour is choreographed," Tiley said. "Everything we do is planned. When we compete with other (schools), I'm pretty convinced we blow them out of the water."

When a recruit arrives at Willard airport in Savoy, Ill., Tiley immediately goes to work. If the winds carry a stench from the South Farms, Tiley makes sure the recruit is abruptly ushered into a car. Just because the air stinks, it doesn't mean the visit should.

Because of the less than scenic drive from the airport to Atkins, Tiley provides recruits with reading material about the tennis team to divert their attention.

When a recruit enters Tiley's office at Atkins, he sees a smorgasbord of Illinois tennis photos, posters and highlight tapes.

It's all part of the plan.

Tiley is driven by the plan.

"He pays a lot of attention to detail," Martin said. "He thinks it's the little things that really make the difference."

Martin agrees with that philosophy. He thinks that's the main thing that sets Tiley apart from other coaches.

Tiley's attention to detail has resulted in a professional atmosphere for the program.

His teams are always well-dressed and punctual. They are a reflection of Tiley's commitment to excellence.

"We've just created this corporate, professional environment and have given a specific direction we need to go, and then my job as a coach is to make sure everyone's moving in that direction," Tiley said. "That's what I facilitate."

He rarely raises his voice to players but instead relates to them levelheadedly.

"He doesn't yell, but you know when he's pissed," Martin said.

He is adamant that everyone involved in the program share credit because he knows that their efforts all contribute to success.

"If I had a choice to give away championship rings and I had $1 million, I would give the championship rings to anyone that had anything to do with the program," Tiley said.

Now that championship rings are a reality, Tiley has a new plan. Pramod Dabir, a sophomore on the team and future leader, is well aware of the direction in which Tiley wants to lead the program.

"He wants to make this a tennis dynasty," Dabir said.