* 2013, 2012 OVC Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year
* 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007 OVC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year
* 1995 MVC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year
The 2018 season will be the 17th for Rob Oertel as the head coach for the men’s and women’s tennis teams at Eastern Kentucky. Oertel has built both teams into regular Ohio Valley Conference championship contenders. Over the last nine seasons, the two teams have combined for nine OVC regular season titles, seven tournament championships and seven NCAA Tournament appearances.
Since 2009, the women’s team under Oertel’s guidance has won five OVC regular season championships, three league tournament titles and made three NCAA Tournament appearances. Over the past eight seasons, the men’s squad has captured four OVC regular season championships and four tournament titles while making four NCAA Tournament appearances.
From April 5, 2011 through April 2, 2014, the Eastern Kentucky women’s team won 30 straight OVC regular season dual matches. The men’s team put together a streak of 25 straight regular season OVC dual match victories from April 12, 2008 through March 21, 2012.
Oertel has tutored 60 All-OVC selections, seven OVC Players of the Year and three OVC Freshmen of the Year while in charge of the Eastern program. He garnered OVC Women’s Coach of the Year honors in 2012 and 2013. He was chosen as the OVC Men’s Coach of the Year in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
“One of my primary goals when I took this position was to raise this program to national respectability,” Oertel said. “I can say with great pride that we are now at that level. I hope we can keep building on our achievements.”
Eastern Kentucky has been successful in the classroom as well as on the court under Oertel. Three Colonels have earned Academic All-America honors while the men’s tennis team was honored with a coveted NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) Public Recognition Award in the spring of 2012.
Oertel has more than 25 years of experience and more than 600 wins as a Division I head coach after previously serving four years at Denver and seven at Indiana State. He handled both the men’s and women’s programs at Indiana State during the 1989-90 season as well as at Denver in the 1996-97 campaign and spring of 1999.
The University of Denver was a Division II program when Oertel took the helm in 1996. By his fourth season, he lifted the Pioneers to a very competitive status at the Division I level with an overall record of 16-8.
Before joining the Pioneer staff at Denver, Oertel recorded an overall record of 95-73 with the Indiana State men’s tennis team. During the 1994-95 season, Oertel guided the Sycamores to a regular season Missouri Valley Conference co-championship and second-place finish in the conference tournament.
Oertel earned the 1995 MVC Coach of the Year award as ISU finished 18-9 overall with key victories over Tulsa, Purdue, Kansas and Marquette. In addition, Indiana State won its final 12 regular season dual matches to earn a berth in the NCAA team championships. The Sycamores advanced to the final 24 in the 1995 NCAA tournament before falling to Arizona State.
A native of West Allis, Wisconsin, Oertel graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 1986 with a degree in business administration. In 1988, he began his coaching career at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Monroe, Michigan, as the assistant coach. Next, he assumed the head coaching reins at his alma mater, Wisconsin-Stout, before moving to Indiana State.
In 1991, he earned his master’s of science degree from Indiana State in physical education with an emphasis in sports administration. Oertel has further enhanced his extensive coaching experience by working with players of all ages as a tennis pro in the Fiji Islands, Michigan and Wisconsin.
As a collegiate tennis player, Oertel was one of the most decorated athletes to ever play for the Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils. He became the first tennis player in Blue Devil history to earn All-America honors while also playing on four consecutive conference championship teams.
Oertel’s NCAA Division III national ranking peaked at No. 13 in singles and No. 4 in doubles during his senior campaign. In 1996, Oertel was inducted into the Wisconsin-Stout Athletics Hall of Fame. He was named to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) All-Time Men’s Tennis Team in 2011.
