Rolando Vargas was named the Radford men’s tennis head coach on July 12, 2017. Vargas came to Radford after spending seven seasons as the head coach for the men’s and women’s programs at Auburn University at Montgomery.
Vargas guided Radford to a 10-12 record in his first season at the helm of the Highlanders – a four-win improvement from the previous season. The Highlanders knocked off the likes of Xavier, Toledo and Delaware in non-conference action.
Five Highlanders finished with double-digit singles wins as Michiel Meekers led the squad with a 16-5 record and Alexandros Caldwell followed with a 15-6 clip.
Rodrigo Magalhaes earned All-Big South Second Team honors with a 12-10 mark, serving in the No. 1 singles position. Magalhaes went 4-3 in conference play, while finishing with a 16-5 mark in doubles action.
In Vargas’ seven seasons, he helped the men's team to a 140-37 record and the women's squad to an impressive 150-35 mark. During the 2017 season, Vargas led both programs to national and regional rankings while playing its first full NCAA Division II schedule. The 2017 season saw the men’s program finish ranked 13th nationally and the women rank 19th in the country.
Vargas guided the women’s program to four NAIA National Championships (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015) and the men to a runner-up finish in 2013. From 2011-2016, Vargas led the men’s and women’s programs to a fifth-place finish or better in the NAIA. During that time, he led both programs to six straight Southern States Athletic Conference titles.
Vargas is a four-time NAIA Women’s Coach of the Year and a nine-time SSAC Coach of the Year (five men’s and four women’s). In his seven seasons: Vargas coached 58 NAIA All-Americans, 30 ITA All-Americans and 10 conference players of the year. Academically, 12 of his players were named a Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athlete and eight were named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.
Vargas attended college at Troy University, where he played No. 1 singles and doubles for the Trojans’ tennis team. As a doubles player, he defeated the No. 8 team in the nation from the University of Alabama. He made the 2003 All-Academic team during his senior season and was a student assistant in 2004 when the Trojans were champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Vargas received a bachelor’s degree in international business and a master’s in sport management.
After leaving Troy, Vargas played professionally for three years, with a ranking as high as 839 ATP. Prior to arriving at AUM, he was an assistant coach at his alma mater from 2007-09. He is a United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) certified coach, earning the status of Elite Certified Professional, the highest available level.
