Head Coach Pierre Pilote

20th Season • Men's Record: 368-120 (.754); Women's Record: 42-30 (.583) • Sherbrooke '85



Pierre Pilote led both the Stetson men's and women's tennis teams to strong seasons in 2011-12, going 17-5 (7-2 A-Sun) with the men and 14-7 (6-3 A-Sun) with the women's squad. Both teams reached the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships with Pilote earning his 400th career victory, combined across both genders, when the women won 4-3 at USC Upstate on March 24. Maksim Levanovich was named A-Sun Men's Tennis Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year while also receiving an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship to lead another large contingent of Stetson tennis award-winning student-athletes.

Pilote added new responsibilities in 2011-12, becoming Director of Tennis at Stetson University and supervising the women's tennis program in addition to what was his 19th season as men's tennis head coach.

Since becoming the Stetson University Men's Tennis coach in 1993, Pierre Pilote is responsible for turning Hatter tennis into one of the most successful teams at the University. In his 19 seasons at the helm of the men's program, Pilote has compiled the most wins and the best winning percentage in school history. His teams have also averaged better than 19 wins per season during his tenure.  Pilote earned his 300th career victory in a 7-0 Stetson sweep of Lehigh at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center March 4, 2009 and his 350th win against Mercer in the 2011 A-Sun quarterfinals (April 14, 2011). Under Pilote, the team has now been at or above .750 in 13 of the last 16 seasons and .800 or above eight times. 

When Pilote inherited the program in 1993, the Hatters were coming off a 4-23 season under former head coach Bill Russell. Since then, the team has enjoyed tremendous success. Stetson has been to six consecutive A-Sun tournament finals (2006-11) and also reached the semi-finals on three different occasions during Pilote’s tenure.

The 2011 Hatters were 20-10 overall and 6-4 in the Atlantic Sun, advancing to a sixth straight A-Sun tournament championship match and defeating two ITA Top 75 conference opponents (Campbell and North Florida) in the process. Njal Stene earned First Team All-Atlantic Sun honors with Cesare Gallo landing on the Second Team; Gallo and Maksim Levanovich were both A-Sun All-Tournament Team selections. In July 2011, Stetson was named one of 71 ITA All-Academic Teams in NCAA Division I; seven Hatters were named ITA Scholar-Athletes, a higher total than all but four teams in the nation.

Stetson went 20-5 overall and 8-2 in the Atlantic Sun Conference under Pilote in 2010, a season which saw four players earn All-Conference honors, including First Team selection Maksim Levanovich.  The Hatters were ranked as high as #70.  In the summer of 2010, a nation-best nine Hatters were named ITA Scholar-Athletes as Stetson was one of just 18 NCAA Division I men's tennis teams to earn All-Academic Team status.

In 2009, Pilote's Hatters went 18-7 overall and 7-2 in the Atlantic Sun Conference; at the end of the season three Stetson players were named to the league's All-Freshman Team, tying a conference record that SU had originally set in 2006.  Stetson was invited to participate in the inaugural ITA Season Kickoff event, a tournament featuring some of the nation's top squads, including Hatter foe #1 Ohio State.  Stetson reached as high as #63 in the ITA national rankings and defeated #72 South Alabama on February 20.

The 2008 season, in which the Hatters went 21-5 overall and 9-1 in conference play, marked the high water mark of program history as Stetson spent the last three months of the season ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Top 75, ascending as high as #53 and finishing 56th.  Pilote's squad achieved this distinction by defeating three ranked squads (South Alabama, Tennessee Tech and North Florida) in a span of 11 days.  Hicham Laalej and Marcus Echtler earned First Team All-Atlantic Sun honors with Joey Jones making the second team and rookies Gokay Celik and Chris Swanteson tabbed to the All-Freshman squad.

In 2006, six players earned All-Conference honors, with Marcus Echtler being named A-Sun Player of the Year.  Echtler also became the first player in Stetson and A-Sun history to be selected for the NCAA individual championship in 2006.  In 2007, Ecthler reached a national ranking of 61 and first team all conference while freshman Hicham Laalej won A-Sun player of the year, freshman of the year and first team all conference.  Laalej was 23-3 in singles play.

Pilote also served as Stetson's head women's tennis coach from Spring 1998 through Spring 1999. The Hatters were 12-13 in 1998 and 16-10 in 1999, the latter squad led by TAAC Player of the Year Taryn Lynn with a 26-0 singles record.

Pilote's teams and individual players have been recognized for numerous outstanding accomplishments during his time at Stetson. Six of his squads (1998, 1999, 2000, 2009, 2010 and 2011) have received the ITA's All-Academic Team Award, while 40 players have been chosen as an ITA Scholar-Athlete. 
In 2009 a program high of six players earned ITA Scholar-Athlete recognition, a figure higher than all but six schools in NCAA Division I; the Hatters would best that mark with a nation-leading nine honorees in 2010.

Before joining the Stetson coaching staff, Pilote served as the tennis director of the Pine Meadows Country Club in Eustis, Fla. While at Pine Meadows, Pilote coached Ty Braswell, who was among the top 10 players 18 and under in the country and currently is an assistant coach at Florida State. He also served as head tennis coach at Eustis High School from 1989-91.

Pilote was also selected as one of the clinicians for the 2003 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Youth Education through Sports (YES) Clinic. As a clinician, he participated in instructional lessons, submitted a sport skill tip for a participant handout, and provided a student-athlete to act as a group leader and mentor during sessions, along with other assigned duties.  In 2005 and 2007, Pilote was selected as NCAA representative for the first two rounds of the tennis championship hosted by the University of Florida.

Prior to his appointment at Pine Meadows, Pierre worked as the tennis professional at Club De Tennis, Tennisport, Inc., in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada from 1985-86 and at the Gray Rock Inn at St. Jovite, Quebec, Canada in 1985.

A certified teaching professional by the U.S.P.T.R., Pilote is a 1985 graduate of the University of Sherbrooke. Pilote is a graduate of the USA Tennis High Performance coaching program.

Pilote is the proud father of a 17-year old daughter, Isabelle. 


Pilote's Year-By-Year Results - Men

Pilote's Year-By-Year Results - Women