Wooten Named Tennis Head Coach
7/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
July 5, 2012
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin director of athletics Robert Hill announced on Thursday that Stephanie Wooten has been named the new head coach of the women's tennis program. Wooten replaces Patrick Sullivan, who recently stepped down to accept the head coaching position at the University of Houston.
"I think Stephanie will make a great head coach for our tennis program," Hill said. "Her Division I college experience as a student-athlete in the Big 10 and as an assistant coach makes her well suited for SFA. I was most impressed with her coaching ability and the way our players responded to her this past season. I'm confident she will keep our program at the top of the Southland Conference."
Wooten spent the past season as an assistant coach at SFA under Sullivan, helping lead the Ladyjacks to their first-ever Southland Conference title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. SFA received a No. 3 seed in the national tournament, making them the highest-seeded women's tennis team from the Southland in the league's history.
"I am extremely excited and humbled to be given this opportunity to take over as head women's tennis coach at Stephen F. Austin," Wooten said. "Patrick (Sullivan) did a great job of positioning this program in the past two years and I am looking forward on building on top of what he did and taking this program to the next level."
Prior to coming to SFA, Wooten spent a year as the interim head women's tennis coach at Lee College in Baytown, Texas, following a stellar playing career at Purdue University. While at Lee she helped lead the Rebels to a national runner-up finish in 2011, guiding a pair of her pupils to individual national titles at the junior college level while also helping a pair of the Rebel doubles squads to national crowns as well. In all, she coached seven NCJCAA all-Americans that season
A Texas native, originally from Crandall, Wooten spent five years at Purdue, being named team captain in each of her final three seasons and the team MVP as both a junior and senior. She currently ranks eighth all-time at Purdue with 65 wins in doubles play, while she and her partner Michelle Sammons still rank sixth all-time in single-season doubles victories with 19 for the Boilermakers. That came on the heels of a perfect high school career at Crandall where she never lost a match on her way to winning four consecutive Class 3A state singles titles and being named the Dallas Morning News High School Player of the Year in both 2002 and 2004.
What they're saying about Wooten:
Coach Patrick Sullivan - University of Houston (former SFA head coach)
"SFA has made a great choice with Stephanie Wooten. It is no coincidence that the success of the program directly coincided with her arrival in Nacogdoches and I am certain that the SLC Championship and NCAA tournament run could not have happened without her. She is the complete package as a tennis coach and as a human being and I look forward to watching her continue to build a strong tennis tradition at SFA."
Coach Matt Iandolo - Head Coach, University of Utah
"I've always thought that Stephanie, even from the very beginning of her career, had a great chance of being a very good coach because she had a tremendous personality and ability to win people over right away. Her intensity is contagious and there is no doubt that her players will play hard for her and that it will carry over into the recruiting process as well."
Coach Terri Sisk - Head Coach, Tulane University
"I am thrilled to see Stephanie step into a position that she has been well groomed for. She is very passionate about her players and has a very solid understanding of tennis and those attributes coupled together will make her a very good head coach and a great asset for SFA."
