Release courtesy of Pratt Athletics
BROOKLYN -- Former NCAA Division II student-athlete and head coach Shawn Cummings has been named head men's and women's tennis coach at Pratt Institute, the department announced Monday morning.
"We're excited to have a coach with Shawn's expertise, energy and drive as our head coach," said associate director of intercollegiate athletics Ryan McCarthy. "We feel he has the skills in terms of teaching tennis and recruiting student-athletes to keep our men's and women's programs performing at a championship level."
He joins the Cannoneers staff after being promoted from assistant to head coach at Division II Molloy College in Long Island. At Molloy, he quickly improved the Lions from last place in the Division II East Coast Conference to the middle of the standings, with his team finishing 8-9 in 2012 and winning five straight matches to close out the regular season.
He was previously the assistant coach at Division II Bowie State in Bowie, MD for two years. For the Bulldogs, he focused mainly on the development of the players individually at practice and matches while recruiting student-athletes locally.
Cummings worked at Prince George's Tennis and Education Foundation in College Park, MD for six years as a program director. Here he created and developed Team High Performance program in which every tournament player who made the team had requirements to stay on it, including a minimum grade point average.
He was a tennis director for two years at Sportime NY Tennis and presently at Gotham Tennis Academy in the Bronx. He runs the scholarship program along with creating Gotham's first quick start academy and running the condition program for home schooled tournament players.
Collegiately, Cummings played on a full scholarship at University of District of Columbia, where he played No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles. As a freshman, he posted the highest grade point average of any student-athlete throughout the Firebirds athletics department.
Cummings inherits two Hudson Valley Athletics Confernece Champions, as both the women's and men's teams won league regular season and postseason crowns in the 2012-13 academic year.
