| Year |
Record |
MIAA |
| 2021 |
6-7 |
4-4 (5th) |
| 2022 |
16-3 |
6-2 (3rd) |
| 2023 |
12-8 |
4-3 (4th |
| 2024 |
17-3 |
7-1 (2nd) |
| Total |
51-21 |
21-10 |
John Ross heads into his fifth year year at the helm of the Calvin women's tennis program. He also serves as the head coach off the Calvin men's tennis program. In addition, he is an associate tenured professor in the kinesiology department. In April of 2022, he was named Calvin University Professor of the Year. In April of 2024, he collected the 600th combined victory of his head men's and women's tennis collegiate coaching career at Calvin.
In four years as head women's tennis coach at Calvin, Ross has compiled an overall won-loss record of 51-21 in dual match action including 21-10 in league competition. In 2022, his squad compiled an impressive 16-3 record, marking the program's highest win total since 2010. In 2024, he led the Knights to a 17-win total - the highest total in his Calvin women's tennis coaching tenure. His women's tennis program has earned the MIAA Team GPA Award four times.
He has been a USPTA certified tennis professional at the Elite Professional since 1994. Ross was also the women’s basketball coach here at Calvin College until 2016. He recorded a 299-66 record and made four trips to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal round. In his 19 years as men's tennis coach at Calvin, Ross has compiled a won-loss record of 246-136 in dual match play, has won one MIAA regular season title, and has made one NCAA Tournament appearance.
As the Calvin men's tennis coach, Ross boasts an impressive record of 88-38 in MIAA action. He also helped lead Calvin to its first-ever MIAA title in school history in 2013 and a second co-title in 2024.
A native of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, arrived at Calvin in the fall of 2003 after spending the previous four years at Earlham College. Ross was the general manager and Head Tennis Pro at Fox Cities Racquet Club in Appleton, Wisconsin from 1995-99. His club sent more than 50 players to the state tennis tournament during his tenure.
From 1994-95, Ross was a tennis professional at the John Newcombe Tennis Academy in New Braunfels, Texas. He worked with future tennis stars from around the world, including Lleyton Hewitt from Australia, who finished the 2001 and 2002 season as the No. 1 ranked player in the world. He has also served as a director of the Nike Tennis Camps at the University of Notre Dame from 1992-95.
Ross began his tennis-coaching career in 1991 as the women's tennis coach at Eastern Illinois University. Over a three-year period, he took the women's team from the bottom of the Mid-Continent Conference (MCC) standings to a second-place finish. In 1994, he was selected the MCC's Coach of the Year. Ross compiled a 55-24 record at Eastern Illinois where the student-athletes in his program had a 100 percent graduation rate and combined a cumulative 3.3 grade-point average.
Ross earned a Master’s of Science degree from Eastern Illinois University in 1994 with a degree in exercise physiology and has a Masters + 30 in athletic administration from Michigan State. Ross received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1990 in K-12 health and physical education.
