WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
GAMBIER, Ohio — During a Kenyon College tennis reunion that will take place on campus April 4-6, Scott Thielke, the long-time coach of both the men’s and women’s tennis programs, will be inducted into the Kenyon Athletics Hall of Fame.
The induction will take place Saturday evening during a dinner ceremony in Peirce Hall.
For 25 years, Thielke led the men’s program before stepping away after the 2019-20 season. He went on to coach the women’s program, for his 28th year, before retiring in 2021. Throughout those 28 years, Thielke’s teams maintained standards that started in places unattainable for other programs.
Thielke’s Kenyon career included 419 wins and 19 NCAA Championship appearances with the men, as well as 398 wins and 14 NCAA Championship appearances with the women. Six times his teams made it to the NCAA Championship semifinals. He won a combined 30 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championships and collected 18 NCAC Coach of the Year awards. He coached one NCAA singles champion and two NCAA doubles champions, while his teams combined for 34 Top-25 national rankings. Additionally, Thielke developed 43 All-Americans and 28 NCAC Players of the Year.
Thielke began his career at Kenyon in 1985-86 academic year. He coached for four years before moving on to coach at his alma mater, the University of South Alabama, and then at Colgate University. He returned to Kenyon prior to the 1997-98 season.
In his time with the Kenyon women’s program, he posted an overall coaching record of 398-180. He guided his teams to a dozen NCAC titles, five national semifinal showings, and a trio of national runner-up finishes. Six of his teams concluded seasons with a Top-10 national rank.
Under Thielke’s watch, the Kenyon women had 11 All-America honors in singles play and eight All-America honors in doubles play. Eighteen times his squads earned the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) All-Academic Team award and more than 75 of his student-athletes collected ITA Scholar-Athlete honors.
Thielke, himself, was a 10-time winner of the NCAC Women’s Coach of the Year award.
For the men, Thielke’s personal awards case includes three ITA Central Region Coach of the Year awards, as well as eight NCAC Coach of the Year awards. His overall record was 419-146. Those numbers include an 82-4 mark in conference competition and a streak of 79 consecutive NCAC regular-season victories.
Thielke-led men’s teams won conference crowns 18 times. They made 18 straight and 19 overall appearances in NCAA Division III Tournaments. In 2011-12 Thielke steered the team to an NCAA runner-up finish and he was voted ITA National Coach of the Year.
The following season, his team climbed to the No. 1 ranking in the country.
Additionally on the men’s side, Thiekle coached 16 ITA Singles All-Americans and 12 players who combined for eight ITA Doubles All-America honors.
Overall, in a coaching career that spanned 36 years and three institutions, Thielke posted a combined record of 1,071-439 (565-200 in men’s competition and 506-239 in women’s).
