COD Men’s Tennis: Lempa to lead the Roadrunners

College of the Desert Men's Tennis has hired Dan Lempa to helm the Roadrunners program.

Coach Lempa replaces one of the most successful Men's Tennis coaches in 3C2A history, while understanding he has to chart his own path even if Lempa has some big shoes to fill.

"College of the Desert has an amazing history and I am very excited to be taking over this prestigious program and continue its reputation as a powerhouse by recruiting great players and taking those players to another level in their tennis game by training hard on and off the court with them to reach their highest potential," commented Coach Lempa. "I played collegiate tennis for the University of Virginia, one of the top tennis programs in the US, and I know what it takes to recruit and train to maintain that great level."

Coach Lempa grew up in Chicago, Illinois with 3 sisters who were all high-level tennis players. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and a Master's of Teaching in Mathematics Education from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Coach Lempa has extensive experience in the last 20 years of playing and coaching top junior and professional tennis.

"I am looking forward to getting our name out there to our Valley programs and to let them know that joining the Roadrunners will be a great place for them to continue to school and tennis education and to grow their abilities to be ready for the next level," Coach Lempa said in a recent interview with COD Athletics.com. "I have been in the Coachella Valley since 2015 hitting with many top players including the Men's and Women's gold medal Olympic champions and top 10 players in the world on both sides and I want to bring that high level to COD so that these local top players know this is a place they can really improve and a great option for their collegiate tennis."

Coach Lempa spent a decade ranked in the top 100 of all players pro's and college players and became hitting partner for 4 different top 100 World ranked players in that span, each lasting over a year (Laura Granville, Julie Ditty, Brian Baker, Huntley Montgomery). In addition, he was the hitting partner for Daria Kasatkina in 2018 as she made the finals of Masters series Indian Wells and beat 3 former #1 players.

"College of the Desert is a place you can come to really improve your tennis and train hard with me and other players on and off the court," commented Coach Lempa.

From 2018 to this past year, Coach Lempa was filmed for HEAD Tennis as the body double for Novak Djokovic and hitting partner for Alexander Zverev, Marin Čilić, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Barbora Krejčíková, Coco Gauff and more and he filmed an 8-hour instructional video with tennis legend Martina Navratilova as her hitting partner.

"I'm looking forward to practicing hard with the players to help them be match ready and then to watch them compete and use those skills we have trained in the matches and use them with success," continued Coach Lempa.

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For additional information, please contact the COD Sports Information Office at 760.423.6641.

Information, Photos & Story provided by COD Sports Information.