Catching Up with Canes: Michael Lang
HurricaneSports.com recently caught up with former Miami tennis players to talk about their current career as well as their college years in Coral Gables.
Check out our recent conversation with Michael Lang, who played at Miami in 2001.
Where do you live now and what are you up to these days?
I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I have been in the real estate business for the last 11 years. I run a development company that develops apartment buildings in Louisiana. I have a wonderful wife that I have been married to for five years and we have a one-and-half year old boy.
What is your fondest memory about playing at Miami?
The match that we won against Minnesota to take us to the Sweet 16. At the time, we were hosting here at Miami, and four of us lived at the on-campus apartments. All four of us living in those apartments won our matches to clinch to go to the Sweet 16 in 2001.
Do you still keep in touch with any of your teammates and if so, which ones?
We do still keep in touch. The 2001 team and couple of guys that graduated before and after me keep in touch. We really have all stayed in touch. It is really cool that 15 years later and Joel Berman, Tarik El-Bassiouni, Andrew Golub, Johan Lindqvist who lives in Sweden, Arpad Odry who lives in England, we pretty much from time to time stay in touch. I Skype with Johan once a month, plus or minus. We all keep in touch now and we all have kids and are married, it is really pretty cool.
How has having a degree from Miami helped you?
For me, it’s number one. I absolutely love Miami. My parents met here in 1971 and have now been married for 41 years, so I grew up a Miami Hurricane. Jay Berger was the coach, and he really pushed us to excel not only on the court and with each other, but we also did really well academically. Jay Berger was telling us last night that we had north of a 3.5 GPA and several of us were in the business program. Getting my degree at Miami really became a launching pad for me. I ended up getting my MBA from Tulane and it has been the best experience of my life.
Since leaving UM, have you followed the teams and if so, what has impressed you most?
We have kept up with the tennis teams. We came up first when Mario Rincon was taking the job. We came back in 2012, for most of us we are spread out now around the country, and we do whatever we can to support the team.
