Men's Tennis: Billy Pate hired as head coach

A little more than a month after the resignation of former men's tennis head coach Glenn Michibata, Billy Pate was hired to coach the Tigers, Directer of Athletics Gary Walters ’67 announced this morning.

Pate spent the last decade as the head coach of the Alabama men's tennis team, which reached the NCAA Tournament in seven of the past 10 years. Under Pate's leadership, Alabama was competitive in the Southeastern Conference, one of the top tennis leagues in the country; seven SEC teams were listed in the top 20 of this season's final Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

"I knew if the opportunity ever presented itself to serve as the men's tennis coach at Princeton University, it would be a situation I would welcome," Pate said in a Princeton athletics release. "We expect to be successful, and we will work tirelessly toward the goal of winning Ivy League championships and competing on the national stage on an annual basis."

Pate graduated from Mississippi State in 1992 and got his coaching start at Georgia Perimeter College, which won three straight national junior college championships from 1998–2000, before becoming an assistant coach at Notre Dame.

Michibata announced his resignation on April 23, just days after the conclusion of his 12th season as head coach. Michibata told The Daily Princetonian that his resignation was a mutual decision between him and Walters, saying that he planned to continue coaching tennis in the West Windsor area. His teams went 45-39 in the Ivy League but never won the conference title.