A veteran tennis coach with wide-ranging success, Brad Louderback finished his eighth season as Wichita State’s head men’s tennis coach and ninth season overall on the staff. A 32-year veteran at the collegiate level, he previously served as head coach in both the Big 10 (at Illinois) and in the former Big 8 Conference (Oklahoma State).
The Arkansas City, Kan. native arrived at WSU in the fall of 2007 as a Associate Head Coach and was promoted a year later to the head job, also taking on the title of Director of Operations for the Sheldon Coleman Tennis Complex.
The Shockers have been perennial contenders for the Missouri Valley Conference title throughout Louderback’s tenure, three times winning the Valley Tournament title, while posting a 129-70 mark in dual matches (.648). Louderback's teams have finished with national rankings in two of the last three years. Following the 2015-16 season, he now has a 293-147 career record in 31 previous seasons at the collegiate level, good for a .665 winning percentage.
Since 2008, 14 singles players and three Shocker doubles teams have earned All-MVC Status, and 12 others have qualified for the conference’s All-Select team.
His 2015-16 squad captured the first MVC Regular Season crown since 1998 and only the third in school history, while adding the MVC Tournament championship with a 4-3 win vs. Drake. Wichita State and Drake have met in the last six championship matches. WSU's tournament championship marked its Valley-leading 25th in school history. Six Shockers earned All-Conference honors highlighted by MVC Player of the Year Tin Ostojic. The accolades didn't stop there, as Louderback took home his first Valley Coach of the Year award.
In 2014-15, the Shockers won 19 duals, matching the second-highest win total in school history, and advanced to the finals of the MVC Tournament for the sixth-consecutive year. Seniors Tomislav Gregurovic, Ilija Cuic and Guillermo de Vilchez were selected, along with junior Tin Ostojic, for the All-MVC Team.
Ostojic finished with a top-50 national singles ranking and posted WSU's first win in the NCAA Singles draw in over three decades. He and Gregurovic added a first round win in the NCAA Doubles bracket before falling in the Round of 16 - one win shy of All-American status.
In the Fall of 2014, Ostojic and Gregurovic accomplished a first for the WSU program, winning the Central Regional Championship in Norman to advance to the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in Flushing, N.Y. There, the duo piled up two more victories before ending their run in the national quarterfinals.
In 2013-14, the Shockers claimed a runner-up finish in the 2014 MVC regular season and advanced to the championship round of the MVC Tournament. Junior Ilija Cuic and Ostojic, a sophomore, were both named to the MVC’s All-Select Team, and WSU closed out a solid season at 18-9.
The 2012-13 Shockers took down No. 27 Drake in the finals of the MVC Tournament to lock down their second NCAA Tournament bid under Louderback. They mounted a charge against host Oklahoma in the first round of the national tourney, winning the doubles point to claim an early lead, before falling 4-2.
Ostojic was named MVC Freshman of the Year, Erick Reyes earned All-MVC status at the No. 6 singles spot, and the grouping of Gregurovic and Guillermo Nicol also claimed all-conference honors at No. 3 doubles for a Shocker team that finished the season at 17-8.
Louderback’s eye for impact talent produced back-to-back MVC Freshmen of the Year. That run began in 2011-12 with a solid debut from Tomislav Gregurovic, who also earned an all-conference nod at No. 3 singles. Reyes and Juan Estenssoro also made the list at Nos. 5 and 6, as WSU locked down three of a possible six singles spots.
The Shockers avenged their only conference regular season loss by downing Illinois State in front of an electric home crowd at the 2010 MVC Tournament. WSU traveled to Norman three weeks later for its first NCAA Tournament trip. A loss to Texas Tech ended the season, but the national tournament appearance marked a major step in Louderback’s rebuilding project. David Cavalcanti and Matheus Pereira earned All-MVC status at No. 5 and 6 singles and two of the Shockers’ three doubles teams earned similar honors at the No. 1 and 3 spots.
As the team's Associate Head Men's Tennis Coach in 2008, Louderback helped guide the Shockers to a 19-4 record, and a second place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
Louderback takes great pride of the work in the classroom by his teams. Since he has taken over at Wichita State, the program has had a 100% graduation rate, none of his teams have earned less than a 3.18 team GPA and two of his teams have earned the athletic department's highest team GPA.
Louderback joined the Shocker's after two years as Head Men's and Women's Coach at Cowley College. At Cowley, Louderback coached eight All-Americans, four national champions, and the No. 1 ranked singles player and doubles team in the nation. His teams also had a 100 percent graduation rate. While at Cowley, Louderback led both the Cowley men’s and women’s teams to top-10 national rankings.
The Arkansas City, Kan. native is no stranger to coaching at the NCAA DI level, having served as a head coach at Illinois and Oklahoma State after beginning his collegiate coaching career in 1980 as an assistant men’s coach under Chuck Kriese at Clemson, where he helped lead the Tigers to a final ranking of seventh nationally.
Louderback served as men’s tennis head coach at Illinois from 1981-85, leading the Illini to a 73-51 overall record and a 23-13 mark in Big Ten play. Louderback took the Fighting Illini from finishing tenth in the Big Ten his first season to their first regular season conference championship in 1984. His 1984 squad also finished the season ranked No. 21 nationally. While at Illinois he coached six Big Ten individual champions and six All-Big Ten performers.
After his tenure in Illinois, Louderback served as head women’s tennis coach at his alma mater, Oklahoma State from 1985-89. While at OSU his squads won more than 90 matches and went undefeated in the Big Eight regular season all five years beating each team 9-0. All five of his squads finished among the top 12 nationally each year, including a 25-7 campaign in 1989 that finished seventh nationally. Louderback coached eight All-Americans, seven Academic All-Americans and 20 Big Eight champions during his time in Stillwater while winning five team conference titles.
From 1981-85, Louderback served as Captain/Head Coach for the USTA National Junior Team (Junior Davis Cup Team). The JDC consisted of the top 12 nationally ranked juniors in the United States that included Patrick McEnroe, Larry Scott (Commissioner of the Pac-10), Luke Jensen, Ritchie Reneberg and Rick Leach (former #1 world doubles ranking).
He also served as Director of Tennis at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Spain before founding the USA Tennis Academy in Delray Beach, Fla. He also spent two years as the Director of Tennis at The Horseshoe Bend Country Club in Roswell, GA. From 2000-2004 Louderback served as the Director of Operations for the Zurich of New Orleans PGA Tour event.
A 1979 graduate of Oklahoma State with a B.S. in Business management, Louderback had a successful playing career as a Cowboy as well, serving as captain of the team that won three-straight conference titles and appeared in the NCAA Tournament three-consecutive years. During his time at OSU, Louderback was also a conference singles and doubles champion and in his senior year ranked as high as #30 in ITA singles.
Louderback has strong connections to Wichita State. His brother, Jay, won a Missouri Valley Conference title at No. 3 singles during his senior year as a Shocker. He then began his coaching career by taking the helm of the WSU women’s program and guided them to a seven-year record of 122-94, including Gateway Conference championships in 1984 and 1986 and a Missouri Valley Conference title in 1982. Jay has been the head women’s coach at Notre Dame for over 20 years and has developed the Lady Irish program into one of the nation’s elite. Additionally, Louderback’s sister, Jan, played for Jay at WSU and still ranks in the top-10 in career wins for the Shockers women’s tennis program. Her husband Joe Krisik pitched for Wichita State.
In April of 2003, the Louderback family was honored by the USTA with the Tennis Family of the Year Award, presented to one family consisting of USTA members and volunteers who have excelled in advancing the USTA's mission to promote and grow the game of tennis both on and off the court.
In 2012, Arkansas City High School renamed the tennis center after the Louderback family, the Louderback Family Tennis Center.
Brad is the son of Coach J.C. and Donna Louderback of Arkansas City. Louderback's daughter Erin and her husband Clayton, along with Louderback’s granddaughter Ainslee and grandson Eion live in McAlester, Okla. His son Luke, an Oklahoma State graduate in Business Management, was a top Oklahoma high school football standout and the top quarterback recruit to the Air Force Academy.
