Austin Hunt appointed Albion’s tennis director

Albion have announced the appointment of Austin Hunt as tennis director for both the men’s and women’s programmes. He is scheduled to start his new role on July 13.

Hunt arrives in Albion after serving as head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Hope College, where he has worked since 2021.

In his five seasons, Hunt led the men’s program to four MIAA championship appearances and the women’s team to four MIAA regular season titles and five MIAA Tournament crowns – continuing a streak of 14 consecutive tournament titles.

During his tenure, Hunt led the Flying Dutch women’s team to an overall record of 88-36, including a 38-1 mark in conference play, while ranking No. 26 in the ITA poll during the 2023-2024 season. They also qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of his five seasons, winning first-round games in four of those years. The men’s program went 47-55, including a 26-8 record in conference play.

Hunt has guided 16 All-MIAA selections on the men’s side and 15 on the women’s side. Seventeen of those were first-team honors, and three women’s players have earned MIAA MVP honors.

Additionally, Hunt has been honored with the MIAA Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year award in each of the past two seasons.

“We are pleased to welcome Austin and his family to Albion,” said Director of Athletics. Jennifer Rushtonsaid. “We had tremendous interest in our position and Austin quickly emerged during the process. He has proven himself as a strong recruiter and has had competitive success as a head coach. His plan to develop our student-athletes in the classroom, on the courts and as leaders will undoubtedly have our teams competing at the top of the MIAA again. We are excited about the future of British tennis with Coach Hunt at the helm.”

Before Hope, Hunt served as Grand Valley’s assistant men’s and women’s tennis coach during the 2020-21 season. That year, both teams competed in the GLIAC Tournament championship, and three members of each team were named All-GLIAC. In addition, the women’s program ranked 33rd in the ITA year-end rankings.

From 2018 to 2020, Hunt was an assistant boys and girls tennis coach at Boyd High School in McKinney, Texas, outside Dallas, where he taught economics to seniors.

Hunt played collegiate tennis at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids from 2012 to 2016. He graduated with 94 career wins, which ranks fifth in program history, including 46 singles victories – fourth in team history. In addition, Hunt was a three-time All-WHAC selection (including first team in 2015), a WHAC All-Academic honoree in 2016 and a member of the WHAC Champions of Character Team in 2014.

The Odessa, Texas native of Permian High School – the subject of the best-selling book and famous movie, Friday evening lights. Hunt was a team captain for three years and was all-district all four seasons in both singles and doubles, graduating in 2012. As a junior and senior, Hunt qualified for the District 1-5A tournament and for the Texas State tournament in doubles, where he finished in the top 16.

As a junior player competing in the USTA Gulf States Region, Hunt qualified for the Texas Super-Champs level in every age division and was a two-star recruit by tennisrecruiting.net. He achieved an all-time ranking of No. 22 in the state of Texas and No. 420 nationally.

Hunt graduated from Cornerstone in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a minor in history. He received his master’s degree in sports management from the University of Michigan in 2017.

Tennis runs in Hunt’s family, as his father, Mark, was his assistant at Hope, the former head coach at Cornerstone after Austin competed and a 25-year high school coaching veteran in Texas. Austin’s brother, Alex, is the head men’s and women’s coach at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

Hunt and his wife Kayla have two daughters, Joanna and Evelyn.

“I would like to say thank you [director of athletics] Jennifer Rushton And [associate athletic director] Andy Lawrence for this exciting opportunity to become the new tennis director and head coach of both programs at Albion,” Hunt said. “I am extremely excited to begin the work of building these tennis programs into annual contenders for MIAA Championships and beyond. Through our work both on and off the field, these Albion student-athletes will become the leaders they want to be, and in turn go out into the world to build other leaders. Go British!”