Greg Patton refers to Clancy Shields as βFireβ and Luke Shields as βIceβ, doing so with such passion that capital letters are required.
Patton refers to their showdown in Fridayβs first round of the NCAA Menβs Tennis Tournament β Arizona v. Boise State β as βThe Clash of Titans.β
Get your tickets while they last.
βClancy is like the Bruce Willis character in the βDie Hardβ movies,β Patton says with a laugh. βHis intensity could start a nuclear reactor.
βBut his brother Luke is like βCool Hand Luke.β If you take him lightly β heβs the toughest mental competitor Iβve ever been around β you are making a mistake.
βThis is a rivalry that has been brewing for 40 years.β
Patton wonβt pick a favorite in Fridayβs match at the UAβs Robson Tennis Center because he loves and respects the Shields brothers like sons. This isnβt just an old coach exaggerating.
Patton coached Luke and Clancy Shields at Boise State from 2005-09, a union so strong β a relationship so rewarding β that Patton turned down an offer to coach the nationβs No. 1 team to keep coaching the Shields brothers.
βItβs true,β Patton says now. βIβll never regret it.β
Illinois won the 2005 NCAA menβs tennis championship, after which coach Craig Tiley resigned to become director of Tennis Australia. The Illini had been so good for so long they were able to handpick Tileyβs replacement
They chose Boise Stateβs Patton, 52, in the prime of his career, a former U.S. National Junior Team head coach. Patton had been the 1997 NCAA Coach of the Year at BSU, and, against all odds, coached the Broncos to a top-10 finish in 2005.
But Patton told the Illini no. The tennis community couldnβt believe it. Did you really say βno?β Illinois had gone 89-5 the previous three seasons. But Patton chose to remain at Boise State.
βI could not bear the thought of leaving Luke and Clancy because I loved them and cared about them,β says Patton. βAnd because the ride was so fun and exciting with them.β
When the Shields brothers were inducted into the Colorado Tennis Hall of Fame last fall, their mother, Teresa, suggested her tennis-playing sons β both ranked in the NCAA top 10 during their Boise State careers β are better at coaching tennis than they were at playing tennis.
βTheyβre almost like parents to these college kids,β she said. βItβs a joy to see them love their work.β
Fridayβs Boise State-Arizona match will be the long-awaited first time Patton has seen the Shields brothers go one on one outside of their daily practice sessions in Idaho from 2005β09.
Whoβs better? Who knows? Patton prevented a Shields v. Shields showdown in the championship match of the 2007 Fall Mountain Region Championships in Las Vegas. Clancy reached the finals through one side of the bracket; Luke worked his way to the finals through the opposite side.
But on the morning of the championship, Patton asked both to withdraw.
βTennis is too often a me-me-me sport,β Patton remembers. βI didnβt think anything good would come from them playing for that championship. Theyβve competed against one another since they were 4 or 5 years old, competing day after day, and I didnβt want there to be a winner. If you know them, you know what I mean. They are the true meaning of brotherly love.β
That brotherly love will take a break Friday at the Robson Tennis Center. Boise State, the Mountain West Conference champ, and Arizona, the Pac-12 regular-season co-champion, will play for something greater than me-me-me.
Their teams will play for a berth in the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament.
Actually, the Shields brothers have coached against each other once: In a February 2017 tournament at Loyola-Marymount, Fresno State β where Luke coached for six seasons before FSU eliminated its menβs tennis program β beat Clancysβ first Arizona team, 4-3.
βThey were the tougher team,β Clancy said.
Since then, much has changed.
Arizonaβs long-irrelevant menβs tennis team has become a certifiable top-25 program. Shields has twice been named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year. He has stopped embarrassing, decades-long losing streaks to USC, UCLA and Stanford.
At the same time, Luke has βgone homeβ to Boise, turning around a Broncos program that had struggled since Pattonβs retirement five years ago
βIt was inevitable they would meet one another on a big stage like this,β says Patton. βThe one thing I know is that neither one of those brothers will give an inch.β
Since their formative years in Grand Junction, Colorado, the Shields brothers have climbed the tennis ladder, peaking simultaneously this week in the NCAA Tournament. What you see is what you get.
βClancy is like an evangelist; heβll all but sing hallelujah to get his team going,β says Patton. βLuke is like a missionary, stoic. Very smart. He exemplifies what it takes to be a champion.
βWho wins? I donβt know. But I do know Iβd like to have them coaching my team.β