John Browning
John Browning is the fourth person in NCAA history, for any division, to win a national team championship as a coach and player. He did the former with Emory University in 2003, the first in school history, and the latter with California-Santa Cruz in 1989.
Browning, who had been head coach at two other NCAA Division III institutions, was appointed the head coach at Emory University in the summer of 1999.
In his 13 seasons at Emory, Browning's teams have both advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals and finished in the top-five in the national rankings on 13 occasions and won 12 conference championships.
Browning has three national championships to his credit, the first coming in 2003 and the second in 2006. The most recent national crown took place in 2012 with the Eagles recording the first undefeated dual-meet season in school history, finishing with a 25-0 slate.
Following the 2008-09 season, his teams had advanced to the semifinal round of the NCAA D-III Championships for eight straight years. Emory finished as national runners-up in 2007 and 2008 and claimed third place in 2009. During the 2010-11 campaign, the Eagles finished runner-up at the national championships.
Browning has coached three NCAA Division III singles champions with Michael Goodwin becoming the first player in school history to earn that distinction when he took home first place in 2009. In 2011, Chris Goodwin, Michael's younger brother, claimed the title after defeating teammate Dillon Pottish in the championship encounter. In 2012, Pottish bounced back to claim the singles crown, topping Nick Ballou of Cal Lutheran in a three-set battel.
During his distinguished stint at Emory, he has guided the program to seven seasons of 20 or more wins while fashioning an impressive mark of 262-60 (.813).
Browning and his assistants have been honored eight times as the conference Coaching Staff of the Year by the University Athletic Association, most recently in 2011. In addition, he has been tabbed the ITA as the Atlantic South Region Coach of the Year on four occasions, in 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2012.
For five years prior to Emory, Browning was the men's and women's tennis head coach at Salisbury State University (Md.). Before that, he spent three years as the head men's tennis coach at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (Calif.) and one year as an assistant men's tennis coach at University of California-Santa Cruz.
His overall career coaching record for men and women combined is 398-131 (.752) in 21 years. His 200th win came in the finals of the conference championship, a 5-2 win against Washington (Mo.), on April 27, 2003, while his 300th triumph took place on March 15, 2008, when the Eagles won at Hawaii-Hilo, 5-2.
Browning is a 1990 graduate of California-Santa Cruz where he received his bachelor's degree. He completed his master's degree at Azusa Pacific University in 1994.
Browning assisted with the development of Emory's recreational outdoor tennis complex that debuted in Spring 2003. In addition, he is the co-chair of the ITA National Ranking Committee and is a member of the Division III Tennis Committee.
