Fresno State Athletics
Brad Dancer Hired as Men's Tennis Coach
9/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 24, 2001
FRESNO, Calif. - Brad Dancer, formerly the women's tennis coach at the University of Arizona, has been hired as the men's tennis coach at Fresno State, interim athletics director Scott Johnson announced today. Dancer replaces Michael Hegarty, who departed in August to take the assistant coaching position at Florida.
Dancer spent the last two years at the helm of Arizona, leading the Wildcats to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2000. Arizona plays in the Pac-10 Conference, regarded nationally as the toughest in the nation. During Dancer's two years at the U of A, the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association's final rankings featured five Pac-10 schools among the top 12. The Wildcats have made the NCAA tournament in 13 of the last 14 years.
Arizona was ranked in the top 25 both years Dancer was at the helm. Under his watch, Michelle Gough and Lindsay Blau earned Pac-10 doubles team of the year honors in 2000. In addition, three players earned academic all-conference honors.
"Brad brings both collegiate and professional coaching experience to our program," Johnson said. "His recruiting contacts are expansive in the United States and abroad, and he is familiar with a high level of competition having coached in one of the toughest tennis conferences in the country. And his track record as a coach on the professional level speaks for itself. Brad has a tremendous drive to take the Bulldog tennis program to an even higher level on the national scene, and I am very happy to have him joining our staff."
Dancer began his coaching career as an assistant men's coach at Michigan State, where he stayed from 1993-98. From 1996-98, he worked as an assistant on the United States Federation Cup team, captained by Billie Jean King. Under his and King's guidance, the 1996 team won the Federation Cup.
Beginning in 1995, he started coaching professional players such as Alberto Brause, Mariaan deSwart, Joannette Kruger, Mirjana Lucic and Martina Navratilova. As his name in the international coaching community began to grow, he was named head coach of the Delaware Smash of World Team Tennis.
In 1999, he was named the head women's coach at the University of Arizona. Immediately, he paid dividends, guiding the Wildcats to a berth in the NCAA tournament, where they eventually fell to USC in the second round. During the 1999-00 season, his assistant was Kevin Epley, the current women's coach at Fresno State who in his first year led the Bulldogs to a program-high final ranking of No. 14.
Dancer will be taking the reigns of a program that is perennially ranked in the nation's top 20. The Bulldogs have reached the NCAA tournament eight consecutive years, including the quarterfinals in 1996 and the round of 16 in 1994-95, '97 and '99. Fresno State has also won the WAC championship twice (1996 and '99). Last season, the Bulldogs finished 18-9 and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to California. They finished the season ranked No. 24.
"This is a top 25 program that I've followed for some time," Dancer said. "It's recent success and great community support are well known in college tennis circles. My goal is to continue the success on the court and excel in the classrooms, as my teams at Arizona did. This program flourished under Peter Smith and Michael Hegarty, and I intend to keep the standard they have set."
Dancer graduated from Michigan State with a degree in business in 1993. At MSU, he competed at No. 1 singles and doubles and earned All-Big Ten honors his senior year. He was a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
