Men's Tennis Head Coach
Dan Hopkins
E-mail: hopkins@rose-hulman.edu
Dan Hopkins enters his 25th season as the head tennis coach at Rose-Hulman, and his 36th year overall in coaching.
Hopkins most recent achievement including leading the women's tennis squad to the 2011 NCAA Division III Tournament after the squad captured the 2010 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships. The title marked the first tennis conference title and second women's league championship in any sport in Rose-Hulman school history.
The women's tennis team backed up the success by sharing the HCAC regular season championship for the second consecutive year in the fall 2011 season.
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, prior to falling in the semifinal round of the HCAC Tournament. In 2012, Rose-Hulman finished 10-7 to secure its 15th consecutive men's tennis season with a .500 or better record.
The accolades have also included four HCAC Player of the Year awards for women's standout Sam Danesis, along with 10 men's all-league honors in the last three years. His women's career record stands at 84-88 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 221-216 in 24 years at the helm. His overall record with 34 years and 65 seasons is 733-445.
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 2008 squad compiled a 10-5 overall record, and the 2009 squad placed second in the conference at 10-3, before breaking through with league titles in 2010 and 2011.
The Rose-Hulman men's tennis team has been ranked regionally in recent years. The Engineers have recorded 15 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 1997 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. Players 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 twenty-nine 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 University (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
Assistant Coach
Curt Howard
Curt Howard enters his fifth season on the Rose-Hulman men's and women's tennis coaching staffs this fall.
Howard came 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.