University of San Francisco Athletics

USF women's tennis head coach Peter Bartlett prepares for his 27th season as a head coach for the Dons and his eighth leading the women's tennis program in 2023-24. 

Bartlett started his career on the Hilltop in 1995 as an assistant coach for the men’s team under then coach George Yuen. In 1997 Bartlett took the reigns as the Head Men’s Tennis Coach. Simultaneously he served as the Associate Head Tennis Professional at the prestigious Olympic Club. He performed both roles simultaneously until 2003 when he left The Olympic Club and came over to USF full time in a more formal full time position. He coached the men’s team from 1997 to 2013.

In 2010 Director of Tennis/ Men’s tennis coach became his new title. Starting Fall 2013 coach Bartlett took on a brand new role (hybrid) as just Director of Tennis becoming the top coach of both tennis programs. He oversaw responsibilities for both programs and was a countable coach with both programs. At that time he appointed Pablo Pires De Almeida (former assistant men’s coach) as a head coach to perform day to day operations of the men’s side and worked with already then head coach Hilary Somers on the women’s side. USF was one of the only Div. 1 schools to adopt this hybrid coaching model. In 2015, Bartlett guided both programs to 3rd place finishes in the West Coast Conference standings.

Although Bartlett had already accomplished this 5 times prior on the men’s side. This was the first time in program history that the USF women’s program had accomplished this feat.

Additionally both programs saw national rankings in 2015. The men’s team receiving an ITA #51 and the women’s program getting a nod at ITA #39. 

After the departure of former head women’s coach Hilary Somers in the summer 2017 Bartlett assumed the role as head women’s coach (interim) starting in the Fall 2017. Bartlett was tasked with the rebuilding of the program that in 2016-17 was finding themselves in a lower position in the WCC conference standings. Bartlett along with long time assistant coach Sean Dizon (former player) would begin the process of trying to return the team back to the upper echelons of the conference and back into the national rankings. 

Bartlett has coached 11 nationally ITA ranked singles players and 10 ITA nationally ranked doubles teams during his time on the Hilltop. He had two separate doubles teams win the ITA regional and move onto the ITA National Indoors. He has coached one doubles pair to an ITA top 20 ITA ranking. He has placed 11 singles players and 4 doubles teams to the WCC first team conference honors. Additionally having 10 more singles and 12 doubles teams join the second team list through the years. He has had 4 winners of the prestigious ITA Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award. 

Because of the longevity of Bartlett’s career he has been able to stabiles a once underfunded and underperforming Div.1 tennis program and turned it into a nationally ranked program. He has uniquely done this now with both the men’s team and with the women’s program. The 2022-23 season will mark Bartlett’s 28th season as a college coach. He is the 2nd longest running tennis coach in the West Coast Conference currently still coaching (including both men’s & women's coaches). 
He is the winningest tennis coach in USF tennis history and currently the longest tenured athletic coach at the University of San Francisco. 

1995 to 1997 (Asst. Men’s Coach)
1997 to 2013 (Head Men’s Coach)
2010 to S’2013 (Director of Tennis / Head Men’s Coach)
F’2013 to F’2017(Director of Tennis / both Men and Women’s program) 
F’2017 to Current (Head Women’s Coach) 

The 2022-23 season with Bartlett at the helm concluded with an overall record of 12-10 including an appearance at the WCC Championships. Maria Martinez Vaquero ranked the #99 women's tennis player in the nation by the ITA. The season saw eight Dons selected as WCC All-Academic Honorable Mentions. Two Dons were honored with All-WCC selections. 

In 2023-24 Bartlett will be going into his seventh season as the USF head women’s coach. He has taken a once lower echelon team and been able to turn the program around. Similar to what he accomplished on the men’s side years earlier. This past season 2020-21 spring season the women's team finished 4th in the WCC conference and finish ITA #68 in the nation. Their very first ITA season ending national ranking. In the 2021-22 season the team also finished 4th in the WCC championship and saw it’s second year in a row with a winning campaign. 

Other notables (interesting facts) 
Coach Bartlett is the brainchild of the “Battle in the Bay” college tennis tournament which he started along with his then assistant coach Pablo Pires De Almeida and Steve Jackson the Director of Tennis at the California Tennis Club. The trifecta along with alumni (member) Ron Tong and Sean Dizon (assistant coach) together have created one of the best college tennis events in the country. Each year the tournament attracts one of the strongest fields of college tennis players in the country. The tournament was started in 2010 and is hosted at the California Tennis Club in San Francisco. 

Bartlett is known for his creative doubles knowledge. He is responsible for creating and popularizing various hybrid doubles formations. These unique doubles formations are currently being duplicated and used by many of the high level collegiate teams and on the professional tennis circuit today. Bartlett has had five former players try their hand at the professional tennis tour and continues to coach and consult for players at the professional level currently. 

Each summer coach Bartlett along with his Asst. Coach Sean Dizon ran the USF Tennis Camps. These were the largest collegiate based camps in San Francisco with over 500+ participants per summer. They successfully ran these camps for 17 years until the pandemic hit in 2020. 

Outside of his tennis life Bartlett has always been an entrepreneur at heart. He has been involved in various side entrepreneurial ventures during his time as a coach. He was Director of Tennis for Optimum Human Performance Center whose BioVision proprietary technology was the first 3-D motion capture technology to be used in sports and science applications. Bartlett worked with various top ATP touring professionals and coaches providing them with biomechanics motion analysis and providing feedback for better efficiency (injury prevention) and technique. In 2005-06 Bartlett founded The Ultimate Coaches Network one of the very first professional social network platforms specifically designed for coaching professionals. A prelude to many of the coaching platforms of today. Additionally in 2006, he founded CollegeSportsCamps a registration software suite specially designed for sports camps and acquired in 2012 by the ABC Sports Camps network. More recently his new ventures (founder) include the GYD travel site and a company called SpotMeSports. 

“Being a coach at a mid-major University is basically like being a entrepreneur anyway. Being on a college campus is an amazing opportunity to collaborate with young people and have access to the educational resources in order to incubate ideas. It’s always been a spark or discussion points for my teams over the years. The countless hours or dinners your spending together you might as well be kicking ideas around.” 

Bartlett played his intercollegiate tennis at the University of Oregon. He set the singles record for most wins in a single season and is listed 3rd on the all time doubles wins list in program history. After college he continued to play ITF professional tournaments in the United States and Asia. He comes from a tennis family with all four siblings playing division 1 tennis and three of them moving on to play professional tennis at some level. Bartlett’s grandfather won the U.S Open doubles title in 1917 and was the #1 ranked junior boy in the United States after winning the US Nationals in 1915 (now know as Kalamazoo). 

Prior to USF, Bartlett served for ten years as the Associate Head Tennis Professional at prestigious Olympic Club. He oversaw all aspects of tennis operations. This included private instruction, junior development and club programming. He was the Co-Director of the USTA competitive training center which took place at The Olympic Club. Bartlett is a certified member of the (USPTA) United States Professional Tennis Association. 

Bartlett and his wife Shannon reside in Pacifica, CA and have three sons, Jake and identical twin boys Sean and Erik. Coach Bartlett earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon in Psychology with a minor in Business. He earned a masters degree in Sports and Fitness management from University of San Francisco in 1995.