Emporia State Director of Athletics David Spafford announced Friday afternoon the hiring of John Blackburn as Director of Tennis and head men’s tennis coach.
Blackburn says during his interview he felt the passion for tennis excellence at Emporia State.
Blackburn comes to Emporia after eight seasons as the women’s tennis coach at Division III Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. At Methodist, Blackburn had an overall record of 117-58 and 54-4 in the USA South. During his stint at Methodist, the Lions won the regular season in the USA South three times, were the USA South tournament champions twice, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament twice. Blackburn was named the USA South Coach of the Year in 2017.
Prior to Methodist, Blackburn spent 10 years at Eastern Illinois University as Director of Tennis and head men’s and women’s tennis coach. Blackburn also spent three years at Coker and four years at Palm Beach Atlantic. Blackburn’s coaching career began as a volunteer assistant coach at Oklahoma State.
In order to get the tennis program back to its prime, Blackburn says it starts with the current players in the program.
Blackburn will take over the men’s program from CyCy Peyroche, who served as interim coach this past season and was named head women’s coach in June.
Blackburn will be introduced at a press conference at 1:30 p.m. on August 9 at the Kossover Family Tennis Complex
