MILWAUKEE – Ryan Kucera has been hired as the new Milwaukee women's tennis coach, Director of Athletics Amanda Braun announced today.
 
"Ryan is a rising star in college women's tennis and we are very excited to have him leading our program here at Milwaukee," Braun said. "His care for his student-athletes in their growth and development, both on and off the court, comes through in the way he approaches leadership and coaching. He has accomplished great things in his two years at Minnesota State, Mankato, and we look forward to where he can take our program in the years to come."  
 
Kucera comes to Milwaukee after two years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, earning Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Coach of the Year honors this season following a very successful campaign on the courts.
 
"I am extremely blessed and humbled to be named the next head coach of the Milwaukee women's tennis program," Kucera said. "A huge thank you to Director of Athletics Amanda Braun, Senior Associate Director of Athletics Adam Schemm, and the entire search committee, and to everyone in the athletic department for putting the trust of a strong program into my hands. I am blessed to be walking into a situation with a university that has great resources, has student-athlete welfare at the forefront of their minds, and puts everyone in a position to be extremely successful. I can't wait to get started and see where we can take the program."
 
Kucera was named NSIC Coach of the Year earlier this month after leading the Mavericks to 16-10 record, which included an 8-3 ledger in NSIC play. In the process, he guided the program to the largest single-season turnaround in conference history, going from 11^th place to third place in just one year.
 
MNSU finished tied for third in the NSIC standings, its highest finish since the 2009 season, helping three different players earn postseason honors. The eight conference victories are the most since the 2013 season and Kucera is the first-ever Maverick coach to receive NSIC Coach of the Year honors. In his short tenure, his student-athletes have broken school records for single-season doubles and singles victories.
 
Prior to taking the Minnesota State position, he served as a tennis professional at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines. Kucera, who has served as the off-season tennis coach at a pair of Des Moines-area high schools the last two years (West Des Moines Valley High School and Urbandale High School), had also been a student assistant coach with Grand View University since 2017. In addition, he worked as a tennis Instructor at Luther College Tennis Camps and served as a Creston (Iowa) Youth Tennis Clinic Instructor for three years.
 
A three-year varsity tennis captain at Grand View, Kucera played in both the singles and doubles lineup for the Vikings after spending his freshman year as a member of the men's tennis team at Luther College. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a psychology degree from Grand View in 2020.