Sam Clarke
- MBA, University of Charleston
- M.S., Strategic Leadership, University of Charleston
- B.B.A., University of Illinois-Springfield
Sam Clarke was named the head coach of the Men's and Women's Tennis programs in October 2023. Clarke brings four years of collegiate coaching experience and was most recently the assistant coach of Cornell's women's tennis program.
During the 2022-23 season, Clarke coached Lan Mi, who was nationally ranked in the Top 125 and was named All-Ivy League. Before Clarke's coaching stint in Ithaca, N.Y, he was a volunteer assistant coach for Maryland's women's tennis program.
Clarke's coaching career began at the University of Charleston where he spent three years as the assistant coach of the men's tennis program. During his time at Charleston, Clarke was named the 2022 and 2021 Assistant Coach of the Year and led the Golden Eagles to back-to-back appearances in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament.
In addition, Clarke led Charleston to back-to-back regional and conference titles while also coaching John Giesberts and Dani Llorente who were respectively named 2021 and 2022 Atlantic Regional Athletes of the Year.
Before Clarke's coaching career, he was a four-year player at the University of Illinois-Springfield, where he leads the program with most all-time wins. In addition to his on-court efforts, Clarke was named the 2019 Male Athlete of the Year, 2019 GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and an Academic All-American.