Roddick Stepping Down, Heading to UCF

NORMAN – University of Oklahoma men's tennis coach John Roddick is stepping down from his role at Oklahoma and has been named director of tennis and men's tennis coach at the University of Central Florida, OU Vice President and Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione announced Sunday.

"First and foremost we want to express our sincere gratitude and respect for Coach Roddick in elevating our men's tennis program to the national powerhouse status it has enjoyed the last several years," said Castiglione. "John maximized the wonderful resources available, such as the Headington Family Tennis Center, to recruit and develop some very special student-athletes. They collectively transformed our program and led it to unprecedented heights, capped by three consecutive national runner-up finishes. The OU Athletics family thanks him for seven years' worth of remarkable achievements and wishes him luck in his new endeavors. We understand this is a very special and unique opportunity for him."

Roddick has served as Oklahoma's head coach for the last seven years and has overseen the most successful period of tennis in OU history, racking up a record of 153-44 and pushing the program to new heights.

In 2010, Roddick took OU to the quarterfinals round of the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history. The Sooners advanced to the round of 16 or further in five of Roddick's seven years, and in each of the last three seasons, OU made it to the NCAA final and played for the national title.

During Roddick's time at OU, the Sooners saw six players win 12 All-America honors and two players win a total of three Big 12 Player of the Year Awards. Under Roddick, 2016 graduate Axel Alvarez became the first Oklahoma player ever to be named ITA National College Player of the Year, and also set OU records for total wins and singles wins in a career.

“I want to thank Joe Castiglione and (OU senior associate athletics director) Michael Alford for the opportunity they gave me to be the head coach here,” Roddick said. “I'd like to thank (former OU senior associate athletics director) Greg Phillips as well, who was instrumental in my hiring at OU. They gave me all the support I needed to build a program that could compete for national championships. I also want to thank all my team members. Their hard work and belief was the reason for our success the last seven years.”

Castiglione stated that a national search will begin immediately to replace Roddick.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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