The 2020-21 season marks Scott Thielke's 28th at the helm of the Kenyon women's tennis program. Thielke stepped aside from the men's program after last season, his 25th. His highly-decorated career includes 17 North Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year awards (eight with the men, nine with the women), two ITA Central Region Coach of the Year honors, and distinction as the 2012 ITA National Coach of the Year.
Thielke began his career at Kenyon in the 1985-86 school year. He coached both the men's and women's teams through four seasons, posting a combined 45-20 record with the men and a 66-9 record with the women. In that time, he directed the Ladies to three-straight NCAA Final Four appearances and a national runner-up finish in both the 1988 and 1989 seasons. During the 1989 year, he coached Kathryn Lane and Julia Kipka to a national runner-up finish in the NCAA Doubles National Championship.
Thielke then moved on to accept a position at his alma mater, the University of South Alabama, where he coached for another four seasons before taking on a similar position at Colgate University. In eight seasons of coaching at the Division I level, Thielke racked up a combined record of 146-54 with men's teams and a combined record of 108-59 with women's teams. He was also the recipient of three Patriot League Coach of the Year awards, and two Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year awards.
He returned to Kenyon prior to the 1997-98 season to coach the women's team and guided the Ladies to another national runner-up finish. In total, the Ladies have made eleven appearances in the NCAA championship tournament under Thielke. In 1998, he coached Caryn Cuthbert and Erin Hockman to the NCAA Doubles National Championship and oversaw Cuthbert's runner-up finish in the singles championship.
In 2000, he returned to the Kenyon men's program and has steered the Lords to 19 NCAA appearances in 20 seasons, including an active streak of 18-consecutive showings from to 2002 to the present. During the Lords' landmark 2012 season, Thielke directed the team to a national runner-up finish and a No. 2 overall ranking. In 2013, the Lords took that ranking and knocked off then-No.1 Emory University to claim the nation’s top ranking, a feat never accomplished before in program history. At that year’s national championships, the Lords achieved another milestone moment when they sent two players (Paul Burgin and Michael Razumovsky) to the individual championship quarterfinals.
With the men’s team defeating Case Western Reserve University on May 12, 2013, Thielke hit the 600-win mark in his Kenyon coaching career. His current coaching record at the College is 381-178 with the women's team and 412-143 with the men's team.
Throughout his previous 24 years of coaching at Kenyon, Thielke has instructed 23 All-America singles players (including the 2008 men's NCAA singles champion), 12 All-America doubles pairings (including the 2016 NCAA doubles champion), and has coached players from more than 16 different countries.
A native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, Thielke graduated from South Alabama in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in physical education and later went on to earn his master's degree in recreational administration. His collegiate playing career included a No. 64 ranking from the NCAA in his senior year, along with a No. 5 ranking from the Southern Tennis Association and a No. 3 ranking in Alabama. He was a Sun Belt Conference singles and doubles champion and was a member of the National Invitational Tournament team in 1982.
Additionally, Thielke has plenty of experience at the professional level, where he played in events throughout the United States and overseas in 1982 and 1983. In the summer of 1995 he was USTA National Coach for the ETA and in 1996 he was an information coordinator for tennis players and coaches in the Atlanta Olympics.
