UTSA women's tennis coach Ki Kroll announced on August 20, 2024 that former UTSA men's tennis staffer Connor Barnard would return to UTSA as the women’s tennis coach ahead of the 2024-25 school year.
“I am beyond excited to be back at UTSA, where my coaching career started,” Barnard said at the time of his hiring. “Ki has done an amazing job with the women’s tennis program, and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue the success. I am looking forward to calling San Antonio home again. Go Roadrunners!”
Barnard has spent the past two seasons as an assistant men’s coach at Wichita State, helping to coach the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region Freshman of the Year Alejandro Jacome, as well as regionally-ranked doubles Kristof Minarik and Alex Richards.
Before making his way to Kansas, Barnard spent the 2021-22 season with the Roadrunner men’s program as a volunteer assistant coach under then-coach Sergey Avdeyev. A native of Cedar Falls, Iowa, Barnard was a graduate assistant at Northern Iowa from 2019-20 before joining the UTSA staff. Barnard served as a tennis professional in Reno, Nev., working with high-level high school athletes, and previously coached at Cedar Falls High School.
"I'm extremely happy to be welcoming Connor back into our Roadrunner Family,” Kroll said of Barnard. “His commitment to the game of tennis is unparalleled and he is a great addition to our coaching staff. He’s a great fit for us and I’m looking forward to his future contributions to the success of this team.”
As a collegiate tennis player, Barnard was named the Simpson College Freshman of the Year before transferring to Wartburg College, where he was a three-time all-conference doubles player in the American Rivers Conference, earning all-conference honors in singles as a senior captain. Barnard’s winning path started early, winning a state championship in high school before becoming one of the top players in the history of Wartburg, winning 47 singles points and 41 doubles decisions before earning his degree in Fitness Management with minors in Leadership and Business Administration. While a GA at UNI, he earned his master’s in Kinesiology and Sport Performance.