Intercollegiate Tennis Association Intercollegiate Tennis Association

Jason Harnett has devoted much of his professional coaching career to the growth and development of Wheelchair tennis in the USA. A former college tennis player at the University of Washington, Jason is now the Director of Wheelchair Tennis at the USTA having coached many of the top US Wheelchair Tennis players in recent decades. The growth of wheelchair tennis providers, wheelchair tennis tournaments, US Open slots and prize money, and collegiate wheelchair tennis programs has been nothing short of remarkable in recent years.

However, with this growth comes a dire need for additional collegiate wheelchair programs across the country so that junior wheelchair players can continue their tennis journey. In this podcast, Jason shares some of his work to date and what steps college coaches could consider to start their own program.

Welcome to the very first episode of the ITA Student-Athlete Podcast, with your host Abi Wild, a senior women’s tennis player at Hawaii Pacific University. This podcast was created by college tennis players for college tennis players to share the stories and experiences of our unique sport with the world.

In today’s episode, Abi sits down with NC State women’s tennis senior Amelia Rajecki, who is someone that she has grown up playing tennis with, and against, in England. Since starting her collegiate career at NC State, Amelia has risen to become one of the top players in all of college tennis, being named an ITA All-American in singles and doubles in 2023, while earning a career-high ITA Singles Ranking of No. 3 in the Nov. 15 rankings release.

Over the next hour, Amelia and Abi will discuss many different aspects of being a college tennis player, including, why she chose to come to college in America and NC State, her success, and what her plans are next. We hope you enjoy this inside look into college tennis, and be on the lookout for new episodes every month for the next four months.

Lindsay Peterson is a former standout player for Nebraska Volleyball helping the team to an NCAA title in 2000. She coached at Northern Colorado and Virginia Tech before taking on the Director of Operations role at the University of Nebraska.

Lindsay has enjoyed a front-row seat to the rise in popularity of women’s college volleyball in recent years and in this podcast, Dave and Lindsay discuss the factors that have led to the growth of interest in volleyball and other collegiate women’s sports; how volleyball coaches have helped grow attendance at their matches and the story behind the world record women’s sports attendance record set last year.

Brendan Sullivan, the founder and CEO of the newest ITA partner, ZAMA Health joins Jon Fagg, the UTA Athletic Director and host, Dave Mullins, to discuss how student-athletes and coaches at UTA are maximizing their use of the ZAMA Health app. They discuss some of the key features of the app which is free for all ITA member programs, the current state of intercollegiate athletics and its impact on the mental health of coaches, and several best practices to ensure the safety of student-athletes.

Nadia Abdala was named the head women’s tennis coach at the University of San Diego (USD) after serving 8 years as the assistant coach. She has made an immediate impact as the head coach helping the team jump to another level of competitiveness amongst the best teams in the nation.

In this podcast Nadia discusses how she managed her relationships with her players during the transition from assistant coach to head coach, her passion to help women in coaching, and her new favorite drill.

Dave Mullins is the current Chief Operating Officer with the ITA and has served in this role since 2019. Before joining the ITA, Dave spent 12 years as a coach in college tennis, last serving as the head women’s tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma. Dave also spent time in college tennis as a player, competing for Fresno State where he would earn All-American honors.

In this podcast, Dave & Lauren Conching discuss the questions coaches submitted, covering everything from WTN to managing dual matches to rules’ questions with Anthony. If you enjoy this unique podcast, let us know so we can do more!