Tucker Clary was named the Head Coach of the Arkansas women’s tennis team on April 28, 2023 after previously serving as the assistant coach for two seasons. In his tenure as acting head coach, Arkansas posted a 6-4 record in the Southeastern Conference, including ranked wins over No. 12 Auburn, No. 28 Vanderbilt, No. 50 Alabama and No. 60 Ole Miss. The Hogs were 5-1 at home in their final six regular season matches. Arkansas finished with two nationally-ranked singles players (No. 41 Carolina Gomez Alonso and No. 79 Kelly Keller) and two nationally-ranked doubles pairs this season. Under Clary, Gomez Alonso was named the SEC Freshman of the Year.
In his two seasons as an assistant coach, Clary helped lead the Razorbacks to a fifth-place SEC finish in 2022, the best conference finish by the Hogs since 2009. Arkansas also earned the most conference wins (9) and ranked wins (9) since 2009. The Hogs earned an NCAA Tournament selection and finished the year ranked No. 30. Clary also coached Tatum Rice, who earned first-team All-SEC honors, SEC Player of the Week honors and qualified for the NCAA Tournament Individual draw. Clary coached five ITA nationally ranked players as an assistant coach. In addition, Clary helped land a recruiting class that featured two former top 100 junior ITF players, an 11 UTR and top 850 WTA ranked players.
Clary came to Fayetteville having spent a year with the women’s tennis program at Texas Tech as a volunteer assistant coach, helping lead the Red Raiders to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and its first win in the tournament since 2018. The Red Raiders ended their season with a 16-9 record and a third-place finish in the Big 12.
Clary has made previous stops at the University of Saint Katherine as an assistant coach with the men’s and women’s tennis programs. The women’s tennis program became the first program at USK to win a Conference Championship in the NAIA era in only their third season.
During his four-year career as a player at Bethany College, Clary was a four-time Fall Conference Individual Champion. In 2014, Clary was a KCAC Conference Champion, a quarterfinalist in the NAIA National Championship and a three-time NAIA National Tournament qualifier. Tucker has experience coaching high level athletes, spending a season with his alma mater in 2015, as well as 2 years as a Tennis Pro at Genesis Health Clubs High Performance Academy in Wichita, where he taught private lessons and helped produce a number of NCAA Division I athletes. Most recently, he held the head coaching job at Francis Parker School in San Diego, running both the varsity and junior varsity programs for the Lancers.
