Brown signs new three-year contract

Yes, the goal of a Division I collegiate coach is to put his or her team in a position to compete for a championship, year in and year out. But big picture, that's only a small part of it.

The goals of coaches are often centered around a higher purpose: to develop young men and women in their given sport and set them up for success in competition and in the classroom, which in turn will set them up for success in life.

The byproduct of that is competing for championships year in, and year out.

As the 2018 Big Sky Coach of the Year whose teams have reached new heights in the rankings and classroom, perhaps no one embodies those goals better than Montana men's tennis coach Jason Brown.

Since taking over for the legendary Kris Nord, Brown's teams have consistently finished among the best in the league, earned big upsets and unprecedented individual honors, all while maintaining a department-best team GPA.

Now Brown has inked a new contract, one that will keep him in Missoula, and keep the Griz netters reaching for new heights through the 2026 season.

"We are thrilled Jason agreed to a multi-year contract to lead our men's tennis program. He is an outstanding leader of young men and works as hard as anyone in the Grizzly athletic department," said Director of Athletics Kent Haslam.

"Jason is always looking for ways to improve and makes the most out of every resource he is given."

For Brown, a Montana native from Conrad and UM alum, the new contract represents a reassurance in the work he's done to make the Griz relevant in college tennis' mid-major landscape.

"I think this contract is such a great vote of confidence the administration has in me – especially coming off what I felt like was one of our toughest seasons – to say, 'Hey, you're our guy. We know what you've been doing over the last decade with this program,' and reassuring me that what we're doing here is making a difference in our athletic department," said Brown.

"I want to thank President Bodnar, Kent Haslam, Jean Gee, and especially Greg Sundberg for pushing to make this happen. It really means more to me than I can speak to and reaffirms my commitment to a place I love."

Brown started his career coaching as an assistant under Nord in 2013 and helped lead the Griz to the program's first Big Sky Championship in 2014.

Since taking over as UM's 24th men's tennis coach in 2018, he's amassed a 64-50 overall record in dual matches, gone 26-16 in conference play, and won 86 percent of his games at home with a phenomenal 32-5 record in Missoula.

His teams have notched several program firsts, including an ITA national doubles pair ranking and an ITA team ranking as high as No. 62 in the nation.

Individuals have also found extraordinary success like Big Sky MVP in Ed Pudney, who finished his career ranked No. 14 in the Mountain Region (another team best), and Oisin Shaffrey, who won the Grizzly Cup for UM's top overall student-athlete.

Among all the team's accolades under Brown, perhaps the most telling are the two Mountain Region "Most Improved Senior" awards earned by Yannick Schmidl in 2018 and Pudney in 2022. Honors that reflect the growth players experience during their time at Montana.

Brown says as the landscape of college athletics continues to evolve and change, a contract like this will help him make future champions out of future Grizzlies.

"We're a development program. We bring kids in and move them from the bottom of the lineup towards the top, and hopefully they end up being all-conference and making waves in their careers. We've had great success doing that, and as the leader of the program I think this contract shows I'm committed to the players just as much as I am the program," he added.

"When I bring kids in, we talk about the fact we're all committed to something bigger than ourselves, and we're going to grow it together. One of the main themes in our program is to leave it better than you found it. That's something that I think is really important in the recruiting process, now more than ever."

Not only have Brown's Grizzlies been more than competitive on the court, they're also champions in the classroom.

Men's tennis has now won five-straight Dusten Hollist Awards for the best team grades in Grizzly Athletics and claimed the first-ever Big Sky Academic Championship in July with an astounding 3.81 cumulative GPA for the 2022-23 school year.

With the help of the team's director of student-athlete support services, Jen Zellmer-Cuaresma, Brown believes the academic piece is an important part of the team's strong culture that has led to that big-picture success that all coaches strive for with their programs.

"We've done some cool things on the court, getting nationally ranked, having some guys get awards we've never received, but we've dominated academically with the help of a great support staff, and I definitely think it's a huge tie into the contract," said Brown.

"We're setting the tone for the department in the classroom. I think that's a big part of this contract, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to keep growing."

University of Montana Athletics

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