The Athletics Department announced the resignation of three coaches last week, headlined by baseball coach Terry Rupp stepping down after nine years.

Both the men’s tennis and women’s tennis coaches, Jim Laitta and Martin Novak, respectively, resigned as well. As a result, four coaching changes will be made this offseason for the Terps – Brett Nelligan is taking over as head gymnastics coach after his father, Bob, retired this year.

Laitta leaves as one of the university’s longest tenured coaches, serving 19 years at the helm of the men’s tennis program. Novak just finished his eighth year with the Terps. Combined, the three coaches finished with a 38-58 record this past spring.

During his time in College Park, Rupp guided the Terps to a 227-271 record overall and just a 61-183 mark in the ACC. After seven consecutive losing seasons, Rupp looked as if he were turning the program around somewhat, as the Terps finished .500 or better in each of the past two seasons. But despite the marginal improvements, the Terps were still unable to break through and reach the ACC Tournament, something they haven’t done since the league expanded to 12 teams in 2006.

“It was obviously a tough conversation I had with the administration, and it’s hard leaving the university when we finally got it to a point where we had a winning season with young guys,” Rupp said. “But with this type of job, it is always a timing thing, and the timing was right for me to move on.”

Rupp said it was particularly difficult because of all the players he had built relationships with. Third baseman Mike Murphy played under Rupp for four seasons and was sorry to see him go.

“I have always admired coach Rupp for the entire time and it’s hard because over the years we have had our fair share of unlucky breaks, but that’s just the way baseball is,” Murphy said. “In any program you are going to have guys who are unhappy, mainly because they aren’t playing. But for the most part everyone respected coach Rupp and he made us better baseball players.”

The Athletics Department hasn’t conducted any interviews with candidates yet, said Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and Baseball Sport Supervisor Dan Trump.

The administration might not have to look far to find a suitable replacement. Assistant head coach Jim Farr, who also served as the pitching coach this year, was the head coach at William and Mary for 13 seasons and left as the school’s all-time winningest coach.

Farr also has handled a good deal of the recruiting for the Terps in recent years and has strong ties in recruiting circles in Maryland and in talent-rich Virginia.

Farr could not be reached for comment, but Rupp was not shy about pledging his support for Farr.

“For the sake of continuity and making sure there aren’t any bumps in the roads, I think Jim would be a great candidate and someone they should look at closely,” Rupp said.

n TENNIS COACHES OUT

The Terrapin men’s and women’s tennis teams will have a different face leading them next year as well.

Laitta and Novak, leading the men’s and women’s teams, respectively, had similar results this past season, with a combined 11-31 overall record and one ACC victory apiece. The department is scheduled to hire two new coaches by July 1, according to Senior Associate Athletics Director Kathleen Worthington.

The university announced May 21 that Novak would be resigning as head coach of the women’s team to become the director of tennis at Trump National Golf Club in Washington.

A week later, athletics announced they would not be renewing Laitta’s contract for the 2009-10 season.

The release of Laitta was arguably more surprising because of what he has done for the program.

Accepting a position as the head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams in 1990, Laitta started with no scholarship players. Eight years later, he had the women’s tennis program with the complete eight scholarships and led the team to its first NCAA appearance in program history.

When Novak came on board as the women’s coach, Laitta concentrated specifically on the men’s team.

Both Laitta and Novak did not return phone calls.

Michal Amir, the captain of the women’s team this past season, thinks the team will be ready for a new coach.

“He’s been here for eight years and he had his ups and downs,” Amir said. “The last two years, though, were really tough on everyone.”

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Senior staff writer Aaron Kraut contributed to this story.