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 | Position:
Head Women's Tennis Coach
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| Graduated:
1973
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Women's tennis at Colorado State University is synonymous with the coaching and leadership provided by veteran mentor Jon Messick. Now in his 21st season as head coach of the Rams women's tennis team (and 25th at CSU), Messick has patiently, diligently and intently guided Colorado State's program into the most successful era in school history.
Colorado State's program won a first-round conference tournament match for the second time in its history during the 2006-07 season, defeating conference tournament host Air Force. The Rams won their previous first-round match in 2001, defeating top-seeded and defending MWC champion UNLV. Since 1998, the Rams have held regional rankings six times, rising as high as 11th in the 2006-07 season. In both the 1999 and 2001 seasons, the Rams were ranked 13th regionally.
During the 2006-07 season, Messick coached the Rams to 52 team doubles victories, tying a school record set in 1998-99. Also in that year the No. 1 doubles duo of Emily Kirchem and Hilary Tyler earned 22 of the team's total doubles wins, breaking a CSU record for single-season doubles victories by a tandem, and also was ranked No. 7 in the region. During Messick's reign at CSU, he has guided 12 players to an all-conference selection, two players to national rankings, and seven players and four doubles teams to Regional rankings.
Tennis has been an integral part of Messick's life for nearly 45 years. From his days of being ranked nationally as a junior tennis player, to his triumphant doubles championship wins during college, to now his 21st year as head coach of the women's tennis program at Colorado State, Messick has made tennis a lifetime experience. During his coaching career, he has prided himself on transferring his tennis knowledge to his players, and this year is no different. On April 18, 2009, he reached his 200th career win as a tennis coach, against Air Force, and his 201st win the next day against Wyoming.
It is no surprise that Messick has made this tennis program a regional force and a team that no Mountain West Conference foe takes lightly. Messick has taken a struggling program and led the team to new heights of success, including its first .500 season in 1998-99, followed by four more winning seasons. He also has coached everyone in the Top 35 on the school's career victories list and all of the school's all-conference selections.
After a successful junior tennis career, in which he earned a No. 1 ranking in doubles play in Maryland and the Middle Atlantic Region, Messick went on to play collegiately at Swarthmore College. While in college, Messick's team won four straight Middle Atlantic Conference titles and he was the MAC doubles champion his senior year.
In addition to his time on the court, both as a coach and a player, Messick works in all facets of the tennis world. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Colorado Tennis Association and is the chairman of the CTA Ranking Committee. He also serves on boards of the Intermountain Tennis Association and the Fort Collins Tennis Association. After the 2008-09 season, Messick was named to the USTA National Collegiate committee. He was also named Chairman of the Mountain Region ranking committee.
He was recently honored with the U.S. Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Community Service Award for the Intermountain Region. Messick also has received the coveted Bud Robineau Award for outstanding contributions to the tennis community. In 2005, Messick was presented the Outreach Award by the Colorado Wheelchair Tennis Foundation, and in 2007 he received a Volunteer of the Year award.
Messick has earned two degrees, one in economics from Swarthmore College in 1973, and the other in accounting from Metropolitan State College in Denver in 1986. Messick has one daughter, Briana, who competed in cross country and track at the University of Wisconsin, and now is a triathlete.
