Eric Rodgers - Head Tennis Coach

Eric Rodgers came to Coe in the fall of 1989 as the director of the Clark Racquet Center and head tennis coach of both the men's and women's teams. He has led Coe to all 13 of its conference titles, earning the honor of Regional Coach of the Year in 1993 and 2001. He was also named Iowa Conference Coach of the Year in 2003, 2004, and 2005 for the men's team and was the coach of the year in 2006 and 2007 for the women's team.

Previously, Rodgers led the tennis program at the University of Evansville, an NCAA Division I school. His teams captured two Midwestern Collegiate Conference titles and he was twice named Coach of the Year.

Still an active player in tennis and squash, Rodgers is a 1979 graduate of Kalamazoo College in Michigan. At Kalamazoo, he was a four-year letterman, captain and played on two NCAA championship squads for legendary coach George Acker.

Rodgers is very active in both NCAA and USTA tennis, having served on the NCAA ranking committee and the NCAA awards committee. He served man years as the Iowa representive on the Missouri Valley Junior Competition Committee. Currently, he is on the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis National Operating Committee and is the Chair of the Central Region NCAA Selection Committee.

In a combined 30 years of prep and college playing and coaching, Rodgers has been involved in 21 conference championship teams. He has also had 11 Academic All-Americans and six tennis All-Americans play on his teams.

Assistant Coach Mark Murphy

Mark Murphy recently completed his 8th season as Associate Head Tennis Coach at Coe College. The Muscatine, Iowa native has helped build one of the best Division III tennis programs in the country. The men’s team has won an impressive 6 consecutive conference titles, with each title resulting in a trip to the NCAA tournament. The women’s program won it's first IIAC title this fall after a very successful 2nd place finish in 2005. The Coe Women's Team will participate in their first NCAA tournament in the spring of 2007.

Murphy graduated from Coe in 1998 with a B.A. in Business Administration and Political Science. He lettered three seasons and was part of 2 Midwest Conference titles under Coe's current and winningest coach, Eric Rodgers.

In addition to coaching tennis at Coe, Murphy is still active in tennis and is an avid squash player. He became a certified USPTA tennis professional in 2002 and has been teaching tennis for 5 years. He has an excellent record with the USTA as well. Murphy has been the assistant coach for the Iowa Competition Training Center (CTC) for 3 years. The Iowa division is one of the founding CTC's dating back to 1988. The CTC program is part of the USTA High Performance division dedicated to the development of the country's best young tennis players from 10-13 years old. Also in 2006, Murphy was voted as the Most Outstanding Contributor to Junior Tennis in Iowa.

Throughout the school year, Murphy teaches private and group lessons as well as leads the Coe Tennis summer camps.