Steve Brooks was hired as Southeast Missouri's Head Women's Tennis Coach Monday. Brooks becomes the 10th head coach in program history.
Brooks comes to SEMO with more than 20 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 15 at the NCAA Division I level.
"We are excited to welcome Steve to SEMO," said Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Brady Barke. "His successful coaching experience combined with familiarity with the Ohio Valley Conference will allow us to continue to strengthen our women's tennis program."
Prior to SEMO, Brooks worked as an assistant coach at fellow OVC member Tennessee State from 2022-24. There, he oversaw budgeting, facilities and travel. Brooks helped the Tigers earn a spot in the OVC Championship semifinals each of the last two years.
Before TSU, Brooks was the Director of Tennis/Pickleball Bristol Racquet & Fitness in Bristol, Tennessee for six years (2015-21).
He has previous head coaching experience working one year as interim head women's tennis coach at Emory & Henry College (2019), nine seasons as head women's tennis coach at East Tennessee State (2001-10) and two years as head men's tennis coach at The Citadel (1999-01).
While at ETSU, Brooks guided the Bucs to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. In each of his final five years during his time in Johnson City, Brooks' teams played in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament finals. His teams also boasted high academic honors with 60 academic all-conference selections, 27 ITA Scholar-Athlete picks, six ITA All-Academic teams, a Fulbright Scholar and a NCAA Sportsmanship Award.
In addition to ETSU, Brooks made other coaching stops at the University of Tennessee, University of Arkansas and his alma mater, Carson-Newman College.
As a collegiate player, Brooks earned undefeated conference records in both singles and doubles all four years at Carson-Newman. The winningest player in program history with 200 victories, Brooks ranked as high as eighth nationally in NAIA in 1984.
A native of Jefferson City, Tennessee, Brooks earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Carson-Newman in 1985. He completed his master's degree in administration/recreation at Tennessee in 1989.
Brooks takes over a SEMO program that won three OVC regular-season titles, two OVC Tournament crowns and made two NCAA Tournament appearances in the last four years.