Men's & Women's Tennis Head Coach
Dan Hopkins
E-mail: hopkins@rose-hulman.edu
Dan Hopkins completed his 25th season as the head tennis coach at Rose-Hulman, and has coached the sport at many levels for 36 years.
Hopkins most recent achievement including leading the women's tennis squad to back-to-back HCAC regular season titles in 2010 and 2011, highlighted by a trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2011. The title marked the first tennis conference title and second women's league championship in any sport in Rose-Hulman school history.
The men’s tennis team added to the success by sharing its first conference championship in program history in 2011. The Engineers rattled off a 7-1 regular season mark and has secured 16 consecutive seasons with a .500 or better record through the 2013 campaign.
The accolades have also included four HCAC Player of the Year awards for women's standout Sam Danesis, along with 14 men's all-league honors in the last five years. His women’s career record stands at 95-93 in 10 seasons as head coach.
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 232-224 in 25 years at the helm. His overall record with 35 years and 66 seasons is 765-462.
On the women's side, Hopkins has led the team through a golden era in the decade of the 2010s. The Fightin’ Engineers won the HCAC regular season and conference tournament title in the fall of 2010 to qualify for the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Rose-Hulman then won another HCAC regular season crown in 2011, before placing second in the league in 2012. The regular season conference record for the women’s tennis program since 2010 is 23-2.
The Rose-Hulman men's tennis team has been ranked regionally in recent years. The Engineers have recorded 16 consecutive seasons at .500 or above, including finishes of second in the 2010 regular season and a tie for first in 2011.
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 1998. 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. In 2009, Sam Danesis and Megan Chann became the first players in Rose-Hulman history to have ITA national rankings in singles for Danesis and doubles for Chann.
Hopkins is a 30-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.
Hopkins spent 17 seasons as the boys tennis coach and nine 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. 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.
Hopkins is a 1974 graduate of Terre Haute North High School, and earned both bachelor and master's degrees from Indiana State (1978, '83). Dan and his wife, Christine, have a 25-year-old son, Andy, and a 23-year-old daughter, Julie.
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