René Vidal enters his third season as an assistant coach for the Washington University in St. Louis men’s tennis program.
In his first season serving under head coach Roger Follmer, the Bears posted a 19-8 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals for the 13th-straight season. The Bears also had three student-athletes (Ethan Hillis, Konrad Kozlowski, Bernardo Neves) earn All-America honors. In a shortened second season due to COVID-19, the Bears went 3-5 and finished the season ranked No. 11 in Division III. Hillis earned All-America honors for the second-straight season in singles.
Vidal is a six-time NCAA Division I Conference Championship Coach at Boise State University, Colgate University, and Mississippi State University. He began his career as a USTA Player Development sport science intern before joining the Boise State men's and women's tennis programs as an assistant coach.
At Boise State, Vidal helped guide the men's program to two-consecutive Big Sky Conference Championships and the women's program to its first-ever Big Sky Conference Championship.
After serving as assistant men’s coach at the College of William & Mary, Vidal joined Colgate as an assistant before being promoted to head men’s and women’s tennis coach. While at Colgate, he led the women’s program to its third-consecutive Patriot League Conference Championship and was voted Patriot League Conference Women’s Coach of the Year.
Before joining the Mississippi State women’s program, Vidal spent three years as a high-performance coach at Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton (Fla.), where he trained elite players such as Jesse Levine (ATP/University of Florida), Caitlin Whoriskey (WTA/University of Tennessee), Matt Manasse (Purdue University), and Allie Will (WTA/University of Florida). At Mississippi State, Vidal led the women's team to its first-ever SEC Championship, a No. 30 ITA national ranking and an NCAA tournament appearance.
Vidal’s success at Mississippi State led to a head coaching position at Southern Illinois (Carbondale), where he immediately turned the program around, guiding the women’s tennis team to the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Championship semifinals in his second year.
In addition to his duties with the WASHU men's tennis program, Vidal is the author of Play Smart to Win: Better Tactics Lead to Better Results, and serves as founder of René Vidal Academy, a performance training company for leaders, teams, and organizations. On and off the court, Vidal has earned a reputation as a visionary leader, tactician, motivator, and an outstanding recruiter with an uncompromising dedication to excellence.
His son Angelo is a sophomore on the men's tennis team at Kenyon College. And for six consecutive years, Angelo or Manny Vidal has played No. 1 varsity singles and doubles for Clayton High School.
In 2013, to honor his father, Vidal created and led the René Vidal Tennis Classic to Stop Diabetes, raising $15,000 on behalf of the American Diabetes Association.
A native of New York City, Vidal holds a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Florida International University and a master of science in sports management from St. Thomas University (Fla). Prior to competing for Broward College (Fla.), he was an ETA nationally ranked junior tennis player.
A USA High Performance Coach and USPTA Elite Tennis-Teaching Professional, Vidal resides in St. Louis with his wife Lisette and three sons: Angelo, Manny and Alex.
Vidal Highlights
- 2019 Elite 8 at WASHU
- Six-time NCAA Division I conference championship tennis coach at Boise State, Colgate, and Mississippi State
- Championships: 3 Big Sky, 2 Patriot League, 1 SEC
- Five NCAA Tournament appearances
- Voted Patriot League Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year (Colgate)
- Chosen by International Management Group (IMG) to serve as Technical Advisor for Venus and Serena Williams’ book, “How to Play Tennis” (DK Publishing)
- Recognized as “one of America’s top coaches” by Dick Gould, legendary coach at Stanford
- Author of Play Smart to Win: Better Tactics Lead to Better Results (2013) and The Power of Focus (2014)
- Coauthor of Play Smart to Win in Business (2015) and Execute to Win: How Leaders Get Results (2018)
- Successfully coached hundreds of nationally-ranked junior tennis players and ITA All-Americans
Updated May 12, 2020
