Judge headed to NCAAs with 25th MEAC championship team

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina -- Four years ago, when Hardeep Judge had just reached 400 career victories and 20 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles as men’s and women’s tennis coach at South Carolina State, two of his three children – daughter Natia and son Naylin – helped him put such accomplishments in perspective.

Naylin, now 11, marveled at S.C. State’s decision to name the school’s on-campus tennis center in his honor.

“Dad, that means you’re getting old,” Judge recalled his son saying. Natia, now 14, followed that with, “Dad, they only name tennis courts after dead people.”

“And then my son came back with, ‘So … that means you’re somewhere between old and dead,’” Judge, now 48, recalled with a laugh.

Imagine how the England-born, Canadian-raised coach of Indian heritage feels now.

Thursday, Judge was reflecting on having reached 25 MEAC tennis titles (13 women’s and 12 men’s) and 500-plus victories, as S.C. State honored him and his 2018 MEAC champion men’s team with a “Salute and Send-off” at Orangeburg Country Club.

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