USU men’s tennis coach abruptly resigns

In a move that may have caught the Utah State athletics program off guard, men’s tennis head coach James Wilson and 2018 Mountain West Coach of the Year announced he will step down as the team’s coach “to pursue other career opportunities” as stated in a press release via the USU athletics department.

Utah State sent out the release out June 24, just under two months after the team’s season-ending upset loss to Fresno State in the Mountain West Conference Tournament semifinal. It was the first time in Wilson’s tenure that the Aggies lost in the conference tournament.

Wilson coached Utah State for three seasons, accumulating a 61-27 record and winning two MW tournaments and a pair of regular season conference titles. The Aggies also reached a program-best No. 37 overall ranking in the NCAA with Wilson at the helm. In his first season, Utah State won 23 games, a program single-season record.

Iain Laurence

Coach James Wilson gets ready for USU men’s tennis March 1 match against the University of Denver. (Iain Laurence/The Utah Statesman)

USU won at least 19 games in each of Wilson’s three seasons with a 19-9 record this past season, culminating in a second-place finish in the MW standings in the regular season and the eventual aforementioned loss to Fresno State in the conference tournament.

Several of USU’s best players in program history played under Wilson including five of the top 11 all-time leaders at USU in combined match wins. Jaime Barajas, the program leader in career wins, played two seasons under Wilson. Sergiu Bucur and Jose Carvajal, two players rising rapidly in the all-time ranks, have played their whole collegiate careers to this point under Wilson’s tutelage.

Wilson had two years remaining on his contract and would have made just over $165,000 for those two seasons ($80,000 for 2019-20 and $85,000 for 2020-21). By terminating his contract early, Wilson will be forced to pay USU $10,000 in “liquidated damages” according to the terms of his contract.

Assistant coach Carlos Di Laura is also no longer with the team. Utah State said in the release that “a national search will begin immediately” to find the next coach of the Aggie men.