Chad Camper has been at the helm of the Louisiana Tech women's tennis team for three years and he already has turned the Lady Techsters into a nationally-ranked program.
This past spring, LA Tech finished with a 15-7 spring record -- tied for the fourth most victories ever -- which marked the second time the team has reached the 15-win plateau under Camper who is just five wins shy of being the winningest coach in program history. One of those victories was an historic one, coming at No. 45 Georgia State for the program's first ever win over a nationally-ranked team which was coupled with the team earning their first ever national ranking.
The team ended up spending three weeks in the Oracle/ITA Top 75, ranked as high as No. 66 in the country after following up the GSU win with a shutout at SMU. As a result, Camper was named the 2016 Louisiana Coach of the Year. He also received this accolade by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association in his first year in 2014.
The success of the spring was carried over from the fall which saw two singles players and a doubles squad take home titles at the ITA Southern Regionals, another first for the program. Camper helped produce four All-Conference USA selections in Alexandra Starkova, Jazmin Britos, Marta Sramkova and Zoe Chen for the 2015-16 season. Starkova and Britos currently have two of the top three singles winning percentages in program history.
It was definitely a bounce back year for the Lady Techsters who adapted to a higher level of competition which began in Camper's second year with playing five matches against nationally-ranked teams.
In his first year at the helm, he became the first LA Tech women's tennis head coach to ever win the Louisiana Coach of the Year after taking a squad with just one upperclassman to a 15-7 record in the program's first year in C-USA, consistently one of the top mid-major leagues in the country. The season included a program-record 11 straight wins with the Techsters also advancing to the C-USA Tournament quarterfinals.
Prior to LA Tech, Camper was the associate head tennis coach for men's and women's at his alma mater Wright State. Prior to being promoted, he served three years as an assistant coach for the Raiders. As a full-time assistant, the Lima, Ohio native was actively involved in the recruitment of future collegiate players both locally and internationally.
Camper recruited the 2012 men's Horizon League Newcomer of the Year and the 2012 men's Horizon League Player of the Year while also coaching the men's team to the Horizon Conference regular season title in 2011-12.
On the women's side, Camper helped take a WSU women's program with a previous 1-21 record to having three successful seasons, including a 14-win season in 2011, with first-time victories over Xavier, Ball State and IPFW.
Camper is the owner of many Wright State tennis records himself having lettered four years for the Raiders from 1998-2002. He was named the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now Horizon League) Player of the Year as well as the Wright State Male Athlete of the Year as a junior in leading his team to the conference championship in 2001.
After graduating from WSU with school records of most singles wins (98), second most doubles wins (77) and second most career wins (175), Camper competed professionally on the ATP Tour from 2002-04.
Camper has also had success as an independent junior development coach for the past 9 years, working with players one-on-one with the desire to play college tennis, having developed four nationally-ranked junior players for their college careers.
