Ross Brown, who has over 25 years of college head-coaching experience, is in his ninth season at the helm of the Austin Peay men and women’s tennis programs, where he has now led both programs to Ohio Valley Conference titles.
After having the 2019-20 season canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown and the Austin Peay women’s tennis team had to wait an extra year to defend their 2018-19 OVC Championship. But after a second-place finish in the 2021 regular season, the Governors swept Murray State in the semifinals and came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat top-seeded Southeast Missouri in the championship match to clinch back-to-back OVC titles.
During the 2021 season, Jana Leder became the third member of the Govs women’s tennis program to be named the OVC Freshman of the Year with Brown at the helm. Leder also became the ninth Governor to earn First Team All-OVC honors during Brown’s tenure, while senior Fabienne Schmidt and junior Danielle Morris became the eighth and ninth players to earn Second Team All-OVC honors. On the men’s side, freshman Frederic Schlossmann became the eighth Gov to earn Second Team All-OVC honors while playing for Brown.
Brown has put an emphasis on academics as well, with both the men’s and women’s programs having recorded a 3.0 grade-point average as a team in each semester that he has led the program. Following the 2021 season, both the men’s and women’s tennis programs received their fifth-straight Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team award, which is given to any ITA program that has a cumulative team GPA of 3.20 or above for an academic year.
The Govs have also been recognized by the ITA for their work in the community during Brown’s time in Clarksville. Following the 2021 season, the women’s tennis program received the ITA’s Ohio Valley Region Community Service Award for the third time in four years. The men’s tennis program has also been named the ITA’s Ohio Valley Region Community Service Award Honorable Mention in 2020 and 2021.
In 2018-19, Brown led the women’s tennis team to the best season in program history, ultimately claiming an undefeated regular season and tournament title. In the regular season, Brown led the Governors to a perfect 22-0 mark that included 15 sweeps. From March 13 to April 13, Brown’s Govs lost just one individual match, sweeping seven of eight matches.
The undefeated regular season led to Brown’s first OVC women’s regular-season title. In the OVC tournament, the Governors beat Southeast Missouri 4-0 in the semifinals, before dispatching UT Martin in the same fashion to claim their first OVC Tournament Championship and first-ever a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The historic season led to Brown receiving his second career OVC Women’s Coach of the Year award. Under Brown’s tutelage, the twin-sister duo of Claudia and Lidia Yanes Garcia were both named First-Team All-OVC selections in 2018-19 – making Lidia the second player in program history to receive All-OVC First-Team honors all four years of her career. In addition, Tatiana Lopez, Schmidt, and Helan Kuppig were named Second-Team All-OVC, giving the Governors five All-OVC selections in the 2018-19 season.
Under Brown, the Yanes Garcia twins became the two most decorated women’s tennis players in Austin Peay, and possibly OVC, history. Both won multiple individual tournament titles and had winning singles records each year they played for coach Brown in Clarksville. Lidia was named the OVC Freshman of the Year (2015-16), Player of the Year three times (2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18), and was an All-OVC First-Team selection four times. Claudia was an All-OVC First-Team selection three times.
In 2014-15, Brown marched a roster loaded with experience to the OVC Tournament finals. The Govs unfortunately fell in a close match against Eastern Kentucky, but seniors Dimitar Ristovski and Aleksas Tverijonas were named First-Team All-OVC and won their singles matches in the championship match.
In the following season, Brown took his team back to the OVC Tournament, reaching the semifinals, with Jasmin Ademovic and Dimitar Ristovksi receiving First-Team All-OVC awards and Aleksas Tverijonas being named Second-Team All-OVC.
Brown’s first season in Clarksville was a huge success. In addition to taking the women’s team back to the OVC Tournament, Brown led the men’s squad to its first OVC Championship since 1974 and its first NCAA Tournament berth. His charges earned four all-OVC honors, including three first-team berths (Sean Bailey, Jasmin Ademovic, Dimitar Ristovski).
Brown served as men’s head coach at Evansville from 1991-2001 before moving to become Southern Indiana men’s coach from 2001-08. He left the coaching profession after the 2008 season to serve as Fujairah Tennis and Country Club general manager in United Arab Emirates for two and a half years.
As a college head coach, Brown led Southern Indiana to the 2005 Great Lakes Valley Conference tennis championship with a 23-6 record, which earned him conference Coach of the Year accolades. He also coached Joe Epkey to the Division II National Championship match.
During his Evansville career, Brown’s teams recorded more than 100 victories. He was named the 1994 Midwest College Coach of the Year.
In his time at Fujairah Tennis and Country Club he helped expand membership from 105 to 805. He also served as Director of the Maktoum Championships, the second largest sporting event during Ramadan in the U.A. E.
He also has served as co-owner and head professional at Advantage Court and Fitness in Evansville from 1997-2005. Prior to that, he served as Competitive Edge and Junior Camp Director at the John Newcomb Tennis Ranch in Australia back in the mid-1980s.
His college coaching background has been on the men’s side, but Brown has coached several junior women tennis players at both Fujairah and Advantage, in particular Stephanie Hazlett, who won five national junior United States Tennis Association Titles and later played at Florida. He also coached Indiana and Kentucky High School champions. Brown is a member of the Paris Junior College Hall of Fame and received the prestigious McLemore Cup (given to the most valuable player of all sports at PCJ) in 1979.
In addition, his two daughters, Bayley (Lewis College) and Brittany (Kansas/Evansville) went on to play college tennis.
