Bryan Shelton (born December 22, 1965) is an American college

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

coach and former professional tennis player. Shelton played collegiately for

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

from 1985 to 1988, and then played professionally from 1989 to 1997. He subsequently returned to his alma mater to coach the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Ramblin' Wre ...

women's tennis team, which won the

NCAA Women's Tennis Championship The NCAA Women's Tennis Championship refers to one of three annual collegiate tennis competitions for women organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for athletes from institutions that make up its three divisions: Division I, I ...

in 2007. He is currently the head coach of the

Florida Gators men's tennis The Florida Gators men's tennis team represents the University of Florida in the sport of tennis. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The team hosts its ...

team of the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, where he coached the Gators to winning the 2021 NCAA Championship. He is the only head coach to have won a national championship in both men and women's NCAA Division I Tennis.

Early years

Shelton was born in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in ...

. For high school, he attended

Randolph School Randolph School is an American independent private kindergarten-through-12th-grade college preparatory school chartered in 1959 in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama. It started in a home on Randolph Avenue in downtown Huntsville with a handful ...

in Huntsville. He played for the Randolph Raiders men's tennis team, and won the Alabama high school singles championship as a senior in 1984.

Personal life

He is the father of tennis player Ben Shelton.

College career

Shelton accepted an

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United ...

to attend the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

, where he played for the

men's tennis team from 1985 to 1988. Shelton was the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

(ACC) champion in singles in 1985, and he and teammate Richy Gilbert were the ACC champions in doubles 1986. He was recognized as an All-ACC selection during each of his four seasons as a Yellow Jacket, and was named an All-American in 1988. Shelton won the United States Amateur Championships in 1985. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information an ...

in 1989, and was inducted into the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993.

Professional career

Shelton won two singles titles ( Newport, 1991 and 1992) during his professional career. He also reached the mixed doubles final at the 1992 French Open, partnering

Lori McNeil Lori McNeil (born December 18, 1963) is an American tennis coach and former top 10 professional tennis player. McNeil was a singles semifinalist at the US Open in 1987 and Wimbledon in 1994, a women's doubles finalist at the Australian Open in ...

. The right-hander reached his highest individual ranking on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

on March 23, 1992, when he became number 55 in the world; his highest doubles ranking, 52, occurred on February 28, 1994. He was inducted to the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.

Coaching

Shelton officially retired from the professional tour in 1997, and was named a

United States Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

(USTA) National Coach, a position he held from January 1998 until June 1999. Shelton coached

MaliVai Washington MaliVai "Mal" Washington ( ) (born June 20, 1969) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at Wimbledon in 1996, won four ATP titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 in Octob ...

, a 1996 Wimbledon finalist. Shelton became head coach of the

women's tennis team in July 1999. In his first season as coach at Georgia Tech, his team went to the second round of the NCAA tournament, upsetting the No. 25

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac ...

before falling to the No. 9

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

. He was named ACC Coach of the Year in 2002, 2005, and 2007. His 2007 team won the Yellow Jackets' third-straight ACC Championship. They then won Georgia Tech's first NCAA-recognized team championship on May 22, 2007, by defeating UCLA in the finals of the

. Prior to his coaching tenure, the Georgia tech women's tennis team had never qualified for the NCAA tournament. Shelton was named the

Intercollegiate Tennis Association The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the governing body and coaches association of college tennis, both an advocate and authority, overseeing men’s and women’s varsity tennis at all levels – NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, ...

(ITA) Coach of the Year in 2007. On June 8, 2012, the

announced that Shelton had been hired as the new head coach of the

team.

Head coaching record

ATP career finals

Singles (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Doubles (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Singles performance timeline

References

External links

* *
Bryan Shelton
– Georgia Tech profile at RamblinWreck.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelton, Bryan 1965 births Living people African-American tennis coaches African-American male tennis players American male tennis players Florida Gators men's tennis coaches Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's tennis players Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets women's tennis coaches Sportspeople from Huntsville, Alabama Tennis people from Alabama 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople