DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Davidson College Athletic Director Jim Murphy announced today the the hiring of Drew Barrett as the new men?s tennis head coach. Barrett takes over the Wildcat program for Jeff Frank, who retired after 34 years of service at Davidson this past spring.
“Drew brings an intensity and perspective that will allow us to build on the foundation established by Jeff Frank over the past three and half decades,” commented Murphy.
Barrett comes to Davidson by way of Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., where where he was the head coach of the Bradley Braves men’s tennis team for the past five years. A former assistant coach at DePaul and Illinois-Chicago, Barrett inherited the Braves’ program that had won just one conference match in 33 tries before his arrival and helped build them into a competitive team in the Missouri Valley Conference. Barrett compiled a 39-87 record at Bradley and earned 11 wins in the MVC during his five seasons.
This past year, Barrett led the Braves to their first MVC Tournament semifinal birth since 1993 after garnering the program?s first main-draw victory in the conference meet in the dual-format era. The Braves finished with an overall record of 7-13 and 2-5 in the MVC. Two of his players became the school?s first MVC individual tournament champions, claiming the No. 1 doubles crown, while another secured his fourth all-conference recognition and earned his third MVC Scholar-Athlete honor. In all, seven players earned MVC Scholar-Athlete recognition in 2006.
The 2003 and 2004 spring seasons were two of the most successful in Bradley?s history. Barrett guided the Braves to a 3-5 conference mark in the spring of 2003 and a ranking of 13th in the final Central Region ITA Poll. Then in the spring of 2004, the Braves went 10-10 overall with a 4-4 mark in MVC play. The four MVC victories were a school-record since round-robin regular-season play began in the mid-?90s. He coached an MVC Freshman of the Year in 2003 and had the MVC?s No. 1 singles all-conference player in 2004.
Barrett also coached a two-time winner of Bradley’s highest athletic honor, the Watonga Award. During his five-year tenure at Bradley, the Braves finished higher in the regular-season standings than any team since 1989.
Before his head coaching duties at Bradley, Barrett was an assistant coach at DePaul during the 1999-2000 campaign, where he helped guide the Blue Demons from a ranking of 125th nationally to as high as 48th in a season termed as the most successful in school history. The Blue Demons won 14 dual matches, with five of those wins coming over nationally-ranked teams.
A graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago, Barrett was involved in junior tennis in the Chicago suburbs for nearly a decade. Most recently, he served as Junior Tennis Coordinator for the Rush-Copley Healthplex, in Aurora and as Director of Junior Development at the South Barrington Tennis Club.