Princeton University Athletics
Men's Tennis Names Hume Assistant Coach
October 06, 2015 | Men's Tennis
Damian Hume, who spent the last two years as the assistant coach at Michigan State, will join the Princeton men's tennis staff as the team's Cornelia Drake and John Van Ryn Jr. '28 assistant coach.
"I am excited for the opportunity to work at such a distinguished institution as Princeton University and a tennis program that is intent on developing college-age players that are strong both academically and athletically," Hume said. "I am ready to jump in quickly to assist Coach (Billy) Pate in helping the tennis team achieve their goals."
Hume succeeds Ryan Keckley, who became the head coach at the University of San Diego.
"We are very excited and proud to have Damian join our program and continue building on the success of the last few years," Pate said. "In a very short time, Damian has garnered tremendous respect nationally from the work he has done at Michigan State. He is a very driven and ambitious professional who has a great skill set not only on court with the technical and tactical elements of the game, but also with psychology and team-building. Damian is a great player in his own right and I actually recruited him quite heavily when he was coming up as one of the top junior players in the world. Though it didn't work out then, I'm certainly glad it worked out now at Princeton.”
A South African native, Hume studied at Boise State, where he played at the team's top position in singles and doubles and was ranked as high as 25th in singles by the ITA during his senior season. Hume also spent time as part of a ranked doubles pair, reaching 43rd on the list at the end of his junior season.
Hume came to the U.S. in 2009 to begin his college career at Collin County Community College in Texas, where he won a Junior College national singles title. In South Africa, Hume earned a ranking as high as 37th in the world during his junior career and No. 1 in the country.
After graduating with a degree in psychology in 2012, Hume spent two summers as an assistant pro at the Country Club of New Canaan in Connecticut before returning to Boise State as an assistant coach in the fall of 2013.
Hume joined the Michigan State staff in January 2014 and helped the doubles pair of Harry Jadun and John Patrick Mullane win three matches at the 2015 NCAA doubles tournament and earn All-America honors with their semifinal run.