Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Dann Nelson Named Men's Tennis Head Coach
08/01/2005 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
Aug. 1, 2005
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois University named Dann Nelson men's tennis head coach Monday, replacing Missy Jeffrey, who resigned in May.
Nelson, who has served as head coach at Western Illinois since 2003, becomes the 13th head coach in the 81-year history of Saluki men's tennis.
"We're excited to hire someone with Dann's level of experience as a men's tennis head coach for our program," associate athletic director Kathy Jones said. "I think he will be a great addition to our athletic department with the skills and experience to be successful at this level."
For the past nine years, Nelson has coached at the college ranks, most recently with the Leathernecks, where he guided the men's team to a second-place regular-season Mid-Continent Conference finish in 2004. His team posted a 5-1 conference record and a 9-4 overall record; Western's best finish in eight years.
From 2001 to 2003, Nelson served as head coach at Westminster College, an NCAA Division III school in Fulton, Mo. In 2003, Westminster posted a 13-2 record to earn a conference title, and Nelson was named coach-of-the-year in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Nelson began his coaching career in 1997 as an assistant at NAIA Oklahoma Christian University, his alma mater, where he also earned All-America honors as a player. His next appointment was at Central Oklahoma, an NCAA Division II school, where he coached for one season before taking the post at Westminster in 2001.
"There is a commitment to tennis at Southern Illinois that I was looking for," Nelson said. "SIU has a great reputation as far as athletics, and the campus is in a beautiful part of the country."
Nelson graduated from Oklahoma Christian in 1997, with a bachelor's degree in social studies. He earned a master's degree in education from Central Oklahoma in 2001.
"The SIU team has consistently been in the middle of the conference standings and I'd like to improve on that this coming year," Nelson said. "Long-term goals include a nationally ranked program. I've had some success everywhere I've been in men's tennis. I feel that I can continue that at SIU. SIU will give me the tools I need to contend for an MVC title. I'm very excited to get started."
