Colorado State University Athletics
Camerota hired as CSU tennis assistant coach
7/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Colorado State tennis head coach Jon Messick announced Thursday the addition of Jarod Camerota to the Rams’ coaching staff. Camerota brings more than a decade of top-level experience as coach and recruiter to Colorado State.
“We are excited to be able to have a full-time assistant coaching position for the first time in our program history,” said Messick. “Jarod brings to us a thorough knowledge of the players and teams in the Mountain West, as well as extensive recruiting contacts in the areas of the country that we like to target. His experience and success as both an assistant and head coach will allow him to immediately contribute to building our program.”
Camerota comes to Fort Collins after one season as the assistant women’s tennis coach at Northern Arizona University where he helped the Lumberjacks to a fourth-place finish and a semifinals berth in the Big Sky Conference championship while helping to develop four all-conference players. Prior to his time at NAU, Camerota spent two years as a tennis pro at Northwestern University.
Prior to his arrival at Northwestern, Camerota held three head coaching positions from 2005-12, first serving as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Jacksonville University (2005-07) in Jacksonville, Fla., followed by a stint as the men’s tennis coach at Georgia State from 2007-09, and three years (2009-12) as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, N.C.
At Jacksonville, Camerota developed the conference player of the year and was named league coach of the year having led the Dolphins’ women’s team to the program’s first conference championship earning both the regular-season and tournament titles. The Dolphins advanced to the school’s first NCAA tournament appearance and a No. 69 national ranking, rated as the best in program history. On the men’s side, Camerota led the Dolphins to their first conference semifinals berth, and helped mentor a trio of all-conference performers.
Camerota left Jacksonville to take over the reins of the men’s tennis program at Georgia State. During his stint at the helm of the Panthers program, he led the squad to a No. 55 national team ranking and developed the team’s first CAA Player of the Year, Nejc Podkrajsek, who peaked at No. 69 in the national individual national rankings.
During his stint at Mars Hill, Camerota continued to mentor top student-athletes, helping to produce a pair of conferences players of the year, and leading the program to the top finish in program history, placing second in the league’s regular season and conference tournament.
Camerota began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant with the men’s tennis program at Ball State. He helped the Cardinals to an NCAA tournament berth and helped to develop the nation’s a No. 3-ranked doubles team. Following his time in Muncie, Ind., Camerota took his first full-time position as an assistant coach for one season working with both the men’s and women’s programs at Northern Illinois. During his stint at NIU, the Huskies boasted there all-conference players on the women’s side, as well as the men’s conference player of the year.
Camerota spent his playing days at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and earned his bachelor’s degree in business education from Arizona State in 2002. The Kenosha, Wis., native has a master’s degree in sport and exercise psychology from Ball State. Camerota published "An examination of preactivity and postactivity flexibility practices of NCAA Division I Tennis coaches" in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.