Jerry Hendrick begins his 27th season as the men's tennis coach at Aquinas College. Coach Hendrick is a 1986 graduate of Spring Arbor University where he was a four-year letter winner. While at Spring Arbor, Hendrick served as captain and played first singles and doubles. Coach Hendrick received a master's degree in social work from Grand Valley State University in 1991 and is currently working as an Area Manager for the State of Michigan in Licensing and Regulation.
During his tenure at Aquinas, Coach Hendrick has been named the Wolverine-Hoosier Conference coach of the year numerous times. His teams have won twelve NAIA Great Lakes Regional titles and have qualified for the NAIA National Championship tournament 16 times. Coach Hendrick has compiled 489 wins and 153 losses in dual matches against top-level competition over the past 25 seasons for a .762 winning percentage that places him among the winningest active coaches in the NAIA. In 2014 Coach Hendrick was inducted into the Aquinas College Athletic Hall of Fame in recognition of his “lifetime achievement” as a coach.
Coach Hendrick has served as the President of the NAIA Tennis Coaches Association (three terms); has been the National Chairperson of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Ranking Committee (four terms) and has served on the ITA Small College Advisory Board (three terms). In addition, Coach Hendrick has served for the past three years as the Head Coach of the United States Tennis Association Boys 18Western Michigan District Cup team.
Prior to arriving at Aquinas, Hendrick coached at Jackson Lumen Christi High School for two seasons where he led both teams to the high school state championship tournament. Numerous Aquinas players have compiled 100-wins during their career at Aquinas under Hendrick’s coaching. This list includes Doug Dooley, Eric Vangessel, Scott David, Steve Greene, David Acevedo, Justin Crain, Kurt Brummel, Tom Huizing, Jason Winegar, Nate Price, Jason Walsh, Matt Garner, Jared Flick, Mike Rose, Patrick Grashorn, Patrick Bruining, Jason Beydoun, Jordan O'Neill, Tuan-Anh Tran, Dan Doerrfeld, John Telfer, Travis Wolf, Kyle Masteller, Aaron Hendrick, Nik Artaev, Kristoff Saari and Andy Struble.
Coach Hendrick resides in Grand Rapids with his wife, Beth, of 30 years and together they have three children: Ashley (27), Aaron (25) and Austin (21).
