Joe Vann

Title

Head Tennis Coach
Email

jvann7@uco.edu
Phone

405-974-2138

Joe Vann was named head tennis coach in August 2021, joining the University of Central Oklahoma to lead one of the premier programs in the country.

In his first season, Vann led Central Oklahoma to its best season in school history. The Bronchos won a school record 24 matches. UCO won the regular season MIAA title before winning the MIAA postseason championship. Central then won its NCAA Division II Central Region I tournament and advanced to nationals for a fourth consecutive season.

Vann led UCO to the national championship match, where it finished national runners-up.

More than half of Vann's first squad earned All-MIAA honors, with two earning All-American honors by year's end.

After the top four players transferred to Division I schools, Vann kept UCO going with another trip to the NCAA national tournament. UCO finished the season 10-11 with five All-MIAA selections, the ITA Central Region Rookie of the Year, and two All-Americans.

Central Oklahoma went 8-10 in 2023-24 and finished fifth in the MIAA, qualifying for the MIAA Women's Tennis Championship Quarterfinals.

Vann came to UCO from UT Tyler, where he spent four years as the assistant coach for both men’s and women’s programs. There, he helped lead the team to American Southwest Conference titles in NCAA Division III. He also guided the team through a transition to Division II, where the women’s program finished fourth in the Lone Star Conference in 2021. This was Vann's second tenure with the Patriots, with whom he also coached from 2007 to 2010.

During his tenure at Tyler, he helped capture five American Southwest Conference championships – three for the men's program and two more for the women. Tyler made three trips to the NCAA regional semis, a trip for the men's team to two NCAA Sweet 16 appearances, and the women's program to three regional semifinals.

Vann is a 2009 graduate of UT Tyler. He earned All-ASC honors both on the court and in the classroom there before moving into coaching.

Between stints at Tyler, Vann helped start the East Texas Baptist tennis programs in 2012 before returning to UT Tyler in 2017. Prior to his role at ETBU, Vann was the assistant tennis coach and director of the tennis academy at Austin Peay State University.

Vann has a long list of award winners from his various coaching stops. He's coached 13 NCAA All-Americans in men's tennis and four in women's tennis, two NCAA Division I All-American individual tournament qualifiers, nine NCAA Division III national individual tournament qualifiers, six ITA Small College national championship qualifiers (Men), and four ITA Small College national championship qualifiers (Women). Vann lists his two Arthur Ashe Award winners as his biggest coaching accomplishments.

Vann holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resources and Development and a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from UT Tyler with a minor in science. He is married (Jennifer) and they have two daughters (Lillian and Jules).