Dave Alden is in his fourth season as the Ichabod and Lady Blues head tennis coach starting his tenure on July 1, 2008. In three seasons at the helm of the Washburn programs, he led both teams to the NCAA playoffs twice and the men’s team to the fourth MIAA championship in the program’s history in 2010 and the women’s fifth title in 2011.
Alden has led the Ichabods to a 34-22 record in three seasons while coaching the Lady Blues team to a 29-11 record with four combined NCAA tournament appearances. In three seasons, he has coached 32 Lady Blues who have received all-MIAA honors as well as two conference MVPs and on the men’s side he’s coached 35 Ichabods to all-conference accolades. Equally as impressive in the classroom, 33 have received academic all-MIAA honors.
Prior to joining the Washburn program, spent five seasons as the head coach at Metro State in Denver where he led his men’s team to three consecutive NCAA Regional Tournaments and back-to-back RMAC Tournament championships. In five seasons as the Roadrunners head coach, Alden has been named the RMAC’s coach of the year twice, coached two players of the year, one freshman of the year and has had 28 men’s players earn all-conference honors and 11 women’s players earn all-conference honors.
Prior to coming to Metro State, Alden served as one of three full-time staff tennis professionals at Regency Sport and Health in McLean, Va. While in Virginia, Alden served as a coach for both the junior and adult United States Tennis Association (USTA) teams and as a coach for top-ranked juniors in the Mid-Atlantic region. He was also an assistant director and co-founder of the Hank Harris Tennis Academy in Alexandria, Va. While at Hank Harris, Alden coached several top-ranked juniors in the area, and also developed all of the marketing materials for the academy.
Before moving to Virginia, Alden served as a staff professional and adult program director at the Fort Collins Indoor Tennis Center in Fort Collins, Colo., from 1992-95. While in Fort Collins, Alden was instrumental in developing a program for top-ranked juniors in the Northern Colorado area and coached USTA junior and adult teams throughout his tenure. Furthermore, he served as assistant tournament director for numerous USTA sanctioned tournaments and served on a committee that designed four additional outdoor tennis courts at the facility. Prior to his years at the Fort Collins Indoor Center, Alden served one year as an assistant tennis professional at the Fort Collins Country Club, while he began his coaching career as an assistant at Poudre High School in Fort Collins. In addition to his duties as an assistant varsity coach, he also headed up the men’s and women’s junior varsity programs.
Throughout his career, Alden has served as a USTA umpire, NTRP Tennis Rater, Wilson Professional Advisory staf f member and has also been on the ITA women’s regional ranking committee. He is currently on the NCAA women’s regional ranking committee.
Alden earned a bachelor’s degree in sport industry operations with a minor in marketing from Metro State in December 2004. In addition to his coaching duties for the Roadrunners, Alden was an assistant athletic director for marketing in the athletics department. He handled all of the marketing for the department, the corporate sponsor program and was the event coordinator for Metro State’s summer concert series. Alden served as the tournament director for the first ever Denver area collegiate wheelchair tournament.
Alden lives in Topeka with his children Alexa and Nadia. His wife Megan passed away in December after a battle with cancer.
