Bill Austin is set to enter his 20th season at the helm of the Ithaca College tennis programs in 2019-20, assuming the head coaching role on South Hill back in 2000.
Through the completion of the 2018-19 season he has led the women’s team to a 213-150 record with 14 Empire 8 championships and the men’s team to a 204-164-1 record along with six Empire 8 titles. Austin guided the program through the transition to the highly competitive Liberty League during the 2017-18 season.
Austin hit a couple milestones during the 2018-19 campaign. On the men's side, he surpassed the 200-win mark as head coach of the men's program with Ithaca's 7-2 triumph over Vassar. Both the IC men's and women's programs qualified for Liberty League postseason play, with the IC women earning a bid for the first time in the program's second season as an affiliate. The IC men also picked up the program's first ever Liberty League postseason win when the Bombers topped Vassar 5-3 in the Quarterfinal Round of the league tournament. Three players on each side were tabbed All-Liberty League picks.
The Bombers had a significant adjustment in joining the talented Liberty League. In the program's first run through the league in 2017-18, he guided the women's team to a 4-13 mark, while the men finished the season with a 6-10 record. The IC men qualified for the Liberty League tournament in their inaugural season, posting a 5-3 record in league play.
He guided the women's program through a prolific run in Empire 8 competition, as the team secured 11 straight Empire 8 Championships in earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament from 2006-07 through 2016-17. He guided the IC women to their first trip to the NCAA Championships in 2006-07, defeating Simmons in a first-round match for the program's initial NCAA playoff victory. In 2009 the Bombers returned to the NCAA regional semifinals and reached that round again. In total, the Bombers have posted a 6-11 mark in NCAA Tournament competition during the run.
Austin led Ithaca to 57 straight wins over Empire 8 opposition from 2004 through 2011, recording the longest conference winning streak in any Empire 8 sport since the league's inception. He was named Empire 8 Coach of the Year four times on the men's side and 11 times on the women's side.
Austin is the winning-est coach in the history of both the men's and women's tennis programs. On the men's side he coached the program's first All-Americans ever, the doubles team of Taylor Borda and Josh Rifkin.
Austin has served on the NCAA Men's Tennis Northeast Regional Ranking Committee and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional Tournament Committee for both women's tennis and men's tennis.
Austin came to Ithaca from Hamilton College, where he served as head coach of the men’s and women’s tennis and men’s and women’s squash teams. At Hamilton, Austin led the women’s tennis team to a two-year record of 18-3, including a 10-1 mark in 1999 and a third-place finish at the 1999 NYSWCAA tournament, earning NYSWCAA coach of the year honors. His men’s tennis record was 14-12. The women’s squash team won the 1999 Howe Cup, signifying the small school national championship. The Hamilton women’s squash team went 25-12 in its last two years under Austin, and the men’s team compiled a 10-20 record.
Before coaching at Hamilton, Austin worked in Ithaca’s office of admissions as assistant to the director. He also assisted with the men’s and women’s tennis programs, helping the women’s team to a 10-1 record in 1995.
Austin has also served as head squash coach at Colgate University and was the director of men’s racquet sports and head men’s tennis and men’s squash coach at Cornell University. The Big Red’s squash team was ranked as high as fifth nationally during his tenure. Austin was the executive director of the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association from 1995-97.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Austin spent four years as head squash professional at The Squash Club in Allston, Mass., and served two years in the same position at The Toledo Club in Toledo, Ohio.
Updated: 5/16/2019
