CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Austin Peay State University Director of Tennis and head men's tennis coach Ross Brown, who led the Governors to four conference championships, announced Tuesday that the 2024-25 season will be his final year of coaching.  

Brown enters his 13th and final season at the helm of the Austin Peay men' and women's tennis team, and, following the 2024-25 season, closes an over 30-year coaching career.

"We are very thankful for Ross and his dedication to Austin Peay Athletics for the past 11 years" said Vice President and Director of Athletics Gerald Harrison, "Ross led his programs with great pride and built a culture of hard work on and off the court.

During his time in Clarksville, Brown earned three conference Coach of the Year recognitions in 2015, 2019, and 2022. He is the first APSU coach to receive the honor multiple times.  

Throughout his time as the head of Austin Peay tennis, the Governors have gone 86-132, with the women's tennis team sporting a 125-103 record since the 2013 spring season.

Brown and the Austin Peay women's tennis program won back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference Championships in 2018-19 and 2020-21, following the cancellation of the 2019-20 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Govs finished second in the OVC 2021 regular season and overcame a 3-1 deficit against Southeast Missouri State to clinch the title.

The 2018-19 season is the best in Governor's history, as Brown led the women's tennis program to an undefeated regular season championship and an OVC tournament title. The team went 22-0 in regular season play, including 15 sweeps.  

In the 2012-13 season, his first with the Govs, Brown led the women's team to the OVC Tournament and the men's team to its first OVC Championship since 1974 and its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance.  

Under Brown, the men's and women's tennis programs has had 22-straight semesters of a 3.0 GPA or higher. The men's program led all athletic programs for the Spring 2024 semester with a 3.899 GPA, the second-best in program history and the fourth-best by an Austin Peay program since 2013.  

Brown was the head men's coach at Southern Indiana from 2001-2009, where he led the team to the 2005 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tennis Championship with a 23-6 record and earned GLV Coach of the Year honors.

From 1991-2001, Brown served as the head men's coach at Evansville, where his team's recorded over 100 victories, and he was named the 1994 Midwest College Coach of the Year.  

Outside of coaching collegiately, Brown served as the Fujairah Tennis and Country Club general manager in United Arab Emirates for two and a half years.  He was the Director of the Maktoum Championships, the second largest sporting event during Ramadan in the U.A.E. and served as co-owner and head professional at Advantage Court and Fitness in Evansville from 1997-2005. Brown was also a Competitive Edge and Junior Camp Director at the John Newcomb Tennis Ranch in Australia in the mid-1980s.