updated 09/25/2008

Dan Hopkins enters his 21st season as the head tennis coach at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and his 31st year overall.

This past fall he helped lead the women's tennis team to it's second consecutive winning season and has turned the men's team in to a consistent winner, highlighted with a second-place finish in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament in 2008.

Hopkins has had the Rose-Hulman tennis program on and upswing ever since he arrived in 1988.  He led the Engineers' men's team to a school record 17-3 mark during the 1997-98 season and has compiled an overall mark of 164-176 in 20 years at the helm. His overall record with 30 years and 60 seasons is 629-379.

On the women's side, Hopkins led the women's team to an 11-5 record in 2006 and a third-place finish in the HCAC with a 6-2 league mark in 2007. The team also recorded a second-place finish in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference standings in 2006 and 3rd in 2007, after the team won just one match in 2005.

The Rose-Hulman men's tennis team has been ranked regionally in recent years. The Engineers have recorded 11 consecutive seasons at .500 or above, including last year's third-place regular season effort in the HCAC.

Hopkins coached Rose-Hulman's inaugural women's tennis team in the fall of 1996, won their first match in 97 and went 3-1 in the spring of 98. The 1998-99 women's team showed dramatic improvement in compiling a 6-12 record. In the fall of 1999, Hopkins led the Rose-Hulman women to a 7-6 record to achieve the first winning season in the school's female athletic history. Players Sam Danesis and Megan Chann became the first players in Rose-Hulman history to have a ITA national rankings this past fall in singles for Danesis and doubles for Chann.

Hopkins is a twenty-six year (P1) certified member of the United States Professional Tennis Association. He was the Indiana USPTA Professional of the Year in 1991 and has served as a district officer with the USPTA Midwest Division. The USTA and ITA awarded him the National Community Service Awards in 1990 and 1999, respectively. The highest award given for service to the tennis profession by the USTA and the ITA. In 2002 he was named USTA All-American Coach for tennis programming in Terre Haute and in Indiana. This past fall he was the Midwest representative at the USPTA World Convention, Saddlebrook Resort, Wesley Chapel, Florida, in the National Seminar Contest and presentations.

The 51-year-old Hopkins is a U.S. Government and History teacher at Terre Haute North Vigo H.S., in his 30th year of teaching. He enjoys the challenge of working with special needs students in the traditional classroom setting, and is a part of the school emergency response team and the emergence evacuation team.

Junior Achievement of the Wabash Valley honored him in April of 2003 with the teacher of the year honor for economic education. The Vigo County School Corporation honored him as teacher of the year for Woodrow Wilson Middle School in 2006.

Hopkins spent 17 seasons as the boys’ tennis coach and 9 years as girls’ tennis coach at Terre Haute South High School. He guided the boys' teams to the Final Four of the state tournament in both 1980 and 1983, and led the 1980 girls' team to a second-place finish in the state. He was also named Indiana High School coach of the year in 1992.

Hopkins was one of the founders of the Terre Haute Junior Tennis Association in 1986, and is still the organization's secretary-treasurer and instructor. The program has won numerous awards for the promotion of youth tennis of the Wabash Valley. Wabash Valley teams have consistently been ranked in the top 20 statewide and have won or been runner-up in the IHSAA State Tournament seven times. As a result of his coaching, teaching, and operation of the Indiana High School Tennis Association he was inducted in the Indiana High School Tennis Hall of Fame in 1998.

As a player Hopkins has been ranked in the top 300 nationally by the United States Tennis Association in age grouped singles and doubles. He has also Midwest and Central Indiana rankings in the Men's 50 and over singles. He and his daughter Julie have been ranked as high as 8th in the nation in USTA Father / Daughter doubles competing in both San Diego and Jupiter, Florida national tournaments in recent years.

Hopkins is a 1974 graduate of Terre Haute North High School, and earned both bachelor and master's degrees from Indiana State University (1978, '83). Dan and his wife, Christine, have a 21-year-old son, Andy, and a 19-year-old daughter, Julie.

Andy is currently enrolled at Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio. Julie has held USTA National rankings in both the 16’s and 18’s. She currently attends Rose-Hulman and plays number two singles on the women's tennis team in 2006. Julie obtained most of her training at Saddlebrook Prep School and Tennis Academy, Wesley Chapel, Florida.

Needless to say, coach Hopkins and his family love tennis. Likewise he loves extended family of tennis players from 60 teams and summer tennis camps.

E-mail: hopkins@rose-hulman.edu    jdh@vigoschools.org
Phone: (812) 877-8252 (Rose) - You will get the athletic department phone.
Phone: (812) 238-9657 (Evenings)
Fax: (812) 877-8407
Cell Phone (812) 239-5061  - Terre Haute North Vigo High School - (812) 462- 4320

Curt Howard

Curt Howard enters his second season on the Rose-Hulman men's and women's tennis coaching staffs this fall.

Howard comes to Rose-Hulman following an 11-year stint as head coach at Sullivan High School.  He earned honors as Conference Coach of the Year three times for the boys squad and five times for the girls squad at Sullivan.

Howard was named the Indiana Girls State Coach of the Year in 1997 and currently serves as a United States Professional Tennis Association instructor at the Wabash Valley Tennis Club in Terre Haute.