Colorado State University Athletics
Jarod Camerota announced as CSU's head tennis coach
7/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Colorado State has hired former assistant coach Jarod Camerota as its women’s tennis coach. Camerota, who has more than a decade of top-level tennis experience, replaces Jon Messick, who announced his retirement in April after 26 years as head coach and 31 years overall.
“We are excited to have Jarod remain at Colorado State, where he made an immediate impact during his time as assistant coach,” director of athletics Joe Parker said. “Throughout our national search, it become evident that Jarod had the ability to not only relate to our current student-athletes but also recruit talented players who will become the next wave of our tennis program.”
When Camerota was hired by Messick in July 2015, he became the program’s first-ever full-time assistant coach. His presence was felt right away through his recruiting, helping sign four four-star players to National Letters of Intent. Messick afterward said the quartet has a chance to become the best recruiting class in school history, and credited Camerota for much of the success.
“Jarod helped tremendously in this process,” Messick said in November. “His work ethic in recruiting and ability to identify talent is top notch. He has made an immediate impact and has helped us to have one of the best mid-major recruiting classes in the country.”
Camerota expressed his gratitude and excitement to become the Rams’ head coach.
“I want to thank Joe Parker, Christine Susemihl and Steve Cottingham, and especially Jon Messick for all that he has done for me,” Camerota said. “I’m also thankful for the coaches I’ve played for or coached with. This job is a tremendous opportunity to develop student-athletes in a great city and at an incredible university.”
Prior to CSU, Camerota spent one season (2014-15) as the assistant women’s tennis coach at Northern Arizona, 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. Before NAU, he spent two seasons (2012-14) as a tennis pro at Northwestern.
Camerota has previous head coaching experience, as well, holding three head coaching jobs. From 2005-07, he was the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Jacksonville University, 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. Jacksonville won both the regular-season and tournament titles and 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 ranking and developed the team’s first CAA Player of the Year, Nejc Podkrajsek, who peaked at No. 69 in the individual national rankings.
During his stint at Mars Hill, Camerota continued to mentor top student-athletes, helping to produce a pair of conference players of the year, and leading the school 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 worked with a Cardinals program that earned an NCAA tournament berth and helped to develop the nation’s 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 three all-conference players on the women’s side, as well as the men’s conference player of the year.
Camerota noted that his goal is to turn CSU into a program that consistently competes for Mountain West titles, and does so with class and integrity, but also to increase community involvement through attendance and support.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported us,” he said. “We can’t reach our goals without community support. Let’s pack the Fort Collins Country Club and University Tennis Complex for matches and take this program to the next level.”
Camerota spent his playing days at 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.
