Jonathan Zych was named as tennis director and head coach in August 2001. Zych also oversees the operations of The Billiken Tennis Center.
During Zych’s two-year tenure over the Billikens, the women’s record is 18-30 with the men at 22-29.
Zych competed on the Division I Big Ten collegiate level at the University of Illinois. U of I coaches credit Zych as a pivotal contributor to the transitional process that saw the Fighting Illini climb from the depths of the Big Ten standings to a 2003 NCAA Triple Crown. In his junior year, Zych was voted team MVP, team captain, received the team’s spirit award. Zych was nominated for the Illinois Scholar-Athlete Spirit Award as well as Big Ten Tennis Sportsman of the Year his senior year. He led the fifth-place Big Ten team with a 3-1 record at the conference championship his senior season.
Prior to his collegiate career, Zych had a stellar national junior career until career threatening spinal fusion surgery put a halt to it. He patiently waited out a three-year recovery period in which he was confined to a Boston back brace (from hip to neck) one one-and-a-half years, 23 hours a day. After taking a medical redshirt freshman year at Illinois, Zych earned three letters in tennis and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in business administration/marketing in1994.
Professionally, he competed in German club tennis and defeated No. 1,087 world-ranked Holger Lolsch in 1995. Zych has been an assistant pro, head tennis pro and the junior programs director at The Clubs at River City and Willow Knolls Country Club in Peoria, Ill., over the past eleven years. As junior programs director, Zych oversaw 400 plus junior players. Zych has worked with four world-ranked players during his coaching tenure. His top coaching prodigy is Andrea Nathan who held a world rank of 367 and was in the Top 50 in the U.S. in 2001 in professional tennis.
Zych has a certified professional (+) rating with the United States Professional Tennis Registry (USPTR) and is a member of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA).
Zych resides in St. Louis County.
