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E-mail Coach Elkins at arloe@mailbox.sc.edu Few coaches in any sport have made the kind of impact head coach Arlo Elkins has during his 26 seasons at South Carolina, where he has a 400-270 record. The 400 wins rank first among all Gamecock women's tennis head coaches and all active NCAA Division I women's coaches in the state of South Carolina. He is a proven winner, and his winning attitude has made the Gamecocks one of the most consistent programs in the country.Elkins took the Gamecocks to new heights in his 26th season. Sitting at 8-7 overall and 1-3 in the SEC with a No. 40 national ranking, Elkins' Gamecocks engineered a remarkable run the rest of the season. The team finished with a 6-5 record in SEC play and entered the NCAA Tournament at 14-10 and ranked 22nd. After disposing of Wake Forest in the first round in Knoxville, Tenn., the Gamecocks upset the tournament's No. 10 seed Tennessee to reach the championships in College Station, Texas. South Carolina, however, was not finished yet and shut out Washington in the round of 16 to reach the quarterfinals. Against the national No. 2-seed Georgia Bulldogs in the quarters, the Gamecocks stole the doubles point but came up one victory short in singles to lose an epic 4-3 battle. It tied for the best postseason finish in school history. South Carolina's 17-11 record was good for a No. 17 national ranking in the final ITA poll, an improvement of 16 places from where it began the year to mark the largest jump of any team ranked in the preseason top 50. Officially beginning his duties as head coach Aug. 15, 1983, Elkins led the Garnet & Black to a 12-17 record in his first season. The following year, however, South Carolina finished 27-10 and won the first of five Metro Conference titles. Elkins and the Gamecocks won the Metro championship the following three years and then once more in 1990, two years before Carolina would compete in the Southeastern Conference. Elkins made his NCAA Tournament debut in 1988 following South Carolina's fourth consecutive league crown. He has currently guided South Carolina to 15 straight NCAA team appearances, the 11th-longest active streak in the country. During that time, the Gamecocks have recorded a winning percentage of .500 or better in each season. Additionally, Elkins has taken the Gamecocks to at least the second round of NCAA play in 14 of their past 16 showings. South Carolina has made a total of 17 NCAA Tournament appearances under Elkins, advanced as far as the round of 16 four times (1990, 1995, 1999, 2009) and made one quarterfinal appearance (2009). The Gamecocks are no strangers to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships as well. Thanks to Elkins, South Carolina has seen an individual compete in the NCAA Championships in 20 of his 26 seasons. In 1994, Helen Crook and Victoria Davies became Elkins' first All-Americans when they reached the semifinal round of the NCAA Doubles Championship. Counting the individual and team tournaments, the Gamecocks have earned representation in some way at the NCAA Championships for 20 straight years. South Carolina has consistently been among the final rankings since Elkins first stepped foot on campus. In 20 of his 26 years, Carolina has appeared in the final team standings and been in the top 25 a total of 14 times. Elkins' 1995 Gamecocks posted a final national billing of 11th, the highest of his career and third best in school history. The Gamecocks have seen at least one singles player or doubles team listed among the season-ending national rankings for 23 of Elkins' 26 seasons. In 1987, a school-best four players were ranked in the top 100 in singles and one doubles team made the top 50. Over Elkins' tenure, 19 players from South Carolina have earned a place on the final singles rankings 41 times and 12 doubles tandems have received rankings in 16 instances. Elkins' players have not been bashful in piling up honors for both their athletic and academic achievements. A total of 12 Gamecocks have captured All-Southeastern Conference recognition during his reign, including 1999 first-team member Lynn-Yin Tan. In 2007, Gira Schofield became the school's second first-team honoree. Schofield also was just the second Gamecock to earn ITA Southeast Region Rookie of the Year accolades in 2006 and she became the first to win SEC Freshman of the Year. Ana Marija Zubori made the All-SEC First Team in 2009 to become the third player to earn first-team praise. Six South Carolina players have been awarded ITA regional certificates, which in addition to Rookie of the Year, include recognition for Senior Player of the Year, Player to Watch and the Leadership and Sportsmanship Award. Academically, 34 Gamecocks have earned SEC Academic Honor Roll recognition 85 times. Two Gamecocks, Crook and Carolina Culik, have earned academic All-America accolades. Year after year, the South Carolina women's tennis program boasts one of the athletics department's top team grade point averages, frequently at or above 3.4. Elkins has proven that his Gamecocks are capable of playing against the top-ranked teams in the country. An Elkins-coached team has combined for four wins against the nation's first- and second-ranked teams. In 2002, the Gamecocks recorded three total wins against the Final Four teams in the 2002 NCAA Championship thanks to a pair of victories over Tennessee and one versus Georgia. In arguably the nation's toughest tennis conference, South Carolina is 108-90 (.545) as a member of the SEC, giving it the fifth highest winning percentage in the league since 1992. The Southeastern Conference has won six NCAA team championships since South Carolina joined the league in 1992 and been runner-up five times. With Elkins as head coach, the Gamecocks have won at least five SEC regular-season matches in all but one year and finished above .500 in 11 of their 18 years with the conference. In 2007, South Carolina posted an 8-3 record against the conference, second only to the 1996 squad's 9-2 mark. At the SEC Tournament, South Carolina has won its opening-round match 14 times and been to the semifinals twice. In 2002, the Garnet & Black reached the championship match of the event. Individually, Elkins has received many awards during his tenure in the Palmetto State. In 1988, he was tapped United States Professional Tennis Association Southern Division Coach of the Year while also earning the South Carolina Tennis Association College Coach of the Year and ITA Southeast Region Coach of the Year awards. Seven years later, he became the first head coach at South Carolina in any sport to win SEC Coach of the Year. Elkins was named the 1994 and 1996 ITA Southeast Region Coach of the Year as well, and in December 2003, he was inducted into the South Carolina Tennis Association Hall of Fame. Elkins is a member of the Rockford High School (Rockford, Mich.) Hall of Fame as well. Before becoming a coach, Elkins played professionally and competed in the main draw at Wimbledon and the French Open. He also played in more than 50 different countries, and in 1978, Elkins was ranked among the top 200 in the world. Within the state of South Carolina, Elkins has been ranked No. 1 in singles, doubles and mixed doubles in men's open 25- and 35-year-old age groups. Elkins worked as the director of tennis and head professional at Spring Valley Country Club in Columbia prior to taking over the head coaching reigns at South Carolina. Born April 5, 1949, Elkins graduated from Northwood Institute with a Bachelor of Arts in business in 1971. He was a four-year starter for the Midland, Mich., based school at No. 1 singles. Elkins and his wife, Tara, have three children: Alyssa, Elliott and Kelsey.
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