Martin Parkes joined the Pepperdine men’s tennis staff in August 2016, bringing over 16 years of coaching and playing experience to the program.
He joins the Waves’ family after most recently serving as the assistant coach and interim head coach for both the men’s and women’s tennis programs at Saint Leo University in Tampa, Fla. since August of 2012.
While with the Lions, he quickly made an impact for both teams and was named Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National and South Region Assistant Coach of the Year after the 2014-15 campaign.
In 2016, he helped lead the men’s program to an appearance in the NCAA Division II Championships where the squad finished as runner-up. The squad finished with a national-best 27-2 overall record and claimed the program’s first-ever Sunshine State Conference Regular Season and Tournament Championships crowns. The team also produced the program’s first #1 Oracle/ITA national ranking, a feat maintained throughout a solid portion of the season. He coached two student-athletes to ITA All-American honors in both singles and doubles and led senior Alex Theiler and freshman Alberto Barroso-Campos to a #1 final doubles ranking to close out the season.
On the women’s side in 2016, the Lions also earned both a SSC Regular Season and Tournament Championship title. The team earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament and competed in the semifinals against top-ranked and eventual NCAA runner-up BYU-Hawaii.
In 2015, Parkes helped the fifth-ranked men’s squad earn national and regional acclaim after leading the team to a postseason berth in the South Region, eventually making it to the regional title match before falling to #2-ranked and eventual national champions Barry. The team finished 16-6 overall and saw many program firsts including a victory over Lynn.
Parkes was the interim head coach for both programs during the 2013-14 campaign. He led the men’s squad to a #4 national ranking; and led the women’s team to a #3 national ranking and the program’s first-ever NCAA Final Four appearance.
Throughout his time with the Lions, he was also responsible for administrative duties, player development, success accountability of the student-athletes and program development.
Prior to and throughout his time at Saint Leo’s, Parkes spent a wealth of his time working at Saddlebrook International Tennis as a Mental Performance and International Tennis Federation Team Group Leader. He began in 2007, coaching top-ranked juniors all over the world on the ITF junior and senior circuits, including current Pepperdine women’s tennis All-American standout Luisa Stefani. Under his coaching skills, Stefani earned a #10 ITF juniors ranking.
He also coached Alexander Zverev (ATP #28 singles, German Davis Cup squad and ITF 1), Alex Domijan (University of Virginia, ATP #541 singles, U.S. Davis Cup squad and ITF 12), Egor Panyushkin (Stetson/Saint Leo, gold medalist at 2015 World Deaf Championship) and Gary Notkin (gold medalist – Maccabi Games, Chile 2015), to name a few.
At the same time, Parkes worked as a freelance high performance and international traveling coach, working part-time as a Sports Psychologist and personal coach to Jonathan Marray (ATP 215 singles, 15 doubles) since 2006, helping the athlete to a win in the 2012 Wimbledon Men’s Doubles Championship.
While serving as a personal coach, he earned the head coaching positions at Leeds University for women’s tennis from 1999-2001 and at Saddlebrook Preparatory High School (2005). He led SPHS to a State finalist run.
Parkes wasn’t always on the sidelines, however, competing at NCAA Division I Campbell University as a student-athlete from 2001-04. He served as team captain and earned the team’s Most Valuable Player award after working towards 20-6 singles and 23-9 doubles records in the 2003-04 season. He earned the coaches award and a #60 doubles ranking in 2002-03 and led his team to Atlantic Sun Conference tournament runner-up status in 2004.
He competed in ATP juniors from 1994-99, playing in ATP Futures, British Tour, German League and Wimbledon pre-qualifying during his career.
Parkes earned his Bachelor in Science with a dual major in Psychology and Exercise Science from Campbell in 2004 and garnered a Masters of Business Administration with a specialization in Sports Business from Saint Leo in 2015.
