University of Tennessee Athletics
SAM WINTERBOTHAM NAMED MEN'S TENNIS COACH
October 24, 2006 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 24, 2006
Tennessee men's athletic director Mike Hamilton announced Tuesday that former University of Colorado head coach Sam Winterbotham (pronounced Winterbottom) has been hired as the Volunteers head men's tennis coach.
"We are excited about Sam joining our staff as our new head men's tennis coach," Hamilton said. "His success at Baylor and Colorado provide a great foundation for his work at the University of Tennessee. In particular at Colorado, he resurrected a program and improved the team's performance in every facet on and off the court."
Winterbotham was the head coach at Colorado from 2002 until the program was cut following the 2006 season. During his career at Colorado he led the team to its highest national ranking ever (No. 23) in 2006.
During his final season at CU, he was also named ITA/Wilson Mountain Region Coach of the Year and Big 12 Co-Coach of the Year while leading the Buffalos to their first 20-win season since 1996-97 and the team's first NCAA Tournament berth since 1988. Winterbotham also guided Colorado to its first-ever berth at the ITA/USTA National Team Indoor Championships in 2006.
Off the court, Winterbotham implemented an academic program at Colorado that helped to significantly improve the team GPA.
"I'm extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity," Winterbotham said. "My wife (Tara) and I our looking forward to living in Knoxville. Everybody has told us it's such a wonderful city and that UT is such a wonderful university to work for. The expectations for this tennis team are very high. The bar has been set very high by the previous coach, and our goal is to meet and exceed these expectations."
After Colorado cut its men's tennis program, Winterbotham assumed the role of assistant director of tennis at Baylor University.
The Great Britain native worked as an assistant coach at Baylor from 1999-2002. In 2002 he earned Region VI Assistant Coach of the Year acclaim. During his four-year tenure with the Bears, he coached four All-Americas, three Big-12 Freshmen of the Year and nine All-Big 12 selections. He also coached two Academic All-Americas and seven Academic All-Big 12 honorees.
Winterbotham played collegiately at Oklahoma Christian University from 1995-98. He was the 1996 Rolex NAIA National Singles Champion and was ranked nationally as high as No. 1 in singles and No. 4 in doubles. Winterbotham graduated in 1999 with a degree in Marketing.
Born Oct 1, 1973, he is married to the former Tara McClure, a native of Asher, Okla. The Winterbothams have two daughters, Zoe and Ryann.
