Michael Edles
Mike Edles enters his 17th season as head coach of the Anteaters. Coach Edles and UC Irvine returned to the Big West Tournament Final for the fifth straight season with a 16-8 record. For Coach Edles, it was his 12th winning season as the coach of the Anteaters.
In the 2010 season, he was named ITA/Southwest Region Coach of the Year and Big West Conference Coach of the Year. The 2010 women's tennis team earned their first ever Big West Tournament title and second trip to the NCAA Tournament.
As head coach of the Anteaters, Edles has lead his teams to wins over nationally ranked programs such as San Diego State, Pepperdine, and Long Beach State. In 2007, UCI went into the Big West Championship with a perfect 8-0 record and at one point was ranked as high as No. 28 in the nation. That same year, UCI earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship, a first for the Big West Conference. Edles has coached players who have earned accolades such as Big West Player of the Year, Big West Freshman of the Year, Intercollegiate Tennis Association West Region Senior Player of the Year as well as numerous All-Big West selections. He has been named Wilson/ITA West Region Coach of the Year, four-time Big West Conference Coach of the Year, and has lead several teams to year-end national rankings.
Edles was a four-year player for the Anteater tennis team from 1975-79, earning NCAA All-America honors in singles and doubles in 1977, when UCI won the NCAA Division II championship. He moved into the coaching ranks following his graduation from UCI in 1979 with a B.A. degree in economics. He served as head men's tennis coach at Cal State Bakersfield from 1979-82, leading that school to California Collegiate Athletic Association championships in 1981 and 1982.
He was then head men's tennis coach at Chapman University from 1982-88, guiding the Panthers to four CCAA titles and NCAA Division II championships in 1985, 1987 and 1988. Edles was named NCAA Division II Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1988.
From 1988-92, he served as head men's tennis coach at Cal State Hayward collecting a Northern California Athletic Conference championship in 1991. Edles was the head women's coach at Boise State from 1992-95, leading the Broncos to their first-ever Big Sky Conference championship in that sport in 1995, when he was named conference coach of the year. He was 42-26 overall while at Boise State.
He served as assistant coach for the men's and women's tennis teams in 1996-97 at the University of Hawaii, where his wife, Laura, was a sociology professor. The Edles' have two children, Benson (22) and Eleanor (19).
