Jacob Eddins
Co-Director
Illinois women's tennis head coach Evan Clark announced the addition of Jacob Eddins to the Fighting Illini staff as an associate head coach on July 13, 2023. The 2023-24 campaign was Eddins' first with the Fighting Illini.
In his first season at Illinois (2023-24), Eddins and head coach Evan Clark led the Illini to a 17-10 overall record, 8-3 mark in Big Ten matches, and an at-large NCAA Team Tournament bid. Illinois earned an upset of No. 23 UCF during ITA Kickoff Weekend and moved up to No. 24 in the first computerized rankings of the season – the best rank by the Illini since the 2019 campaign.
The 2024 NCAA Team Tournament appearance marked the first of Eddins' career.
Eddins served as an assistant coach at WVU for three seasons before being promoted to the associate head coach role for his final season in Morgantown. In 2023, Eddins and the Mountaineers had a historic season, which included the program's highest ITA national ranking at No. 51, an 11-4 start during the spring slate and the program's first-ever victory over Kansas State, which also marked the squad's first Big 12 victory since 2018.
Eddins helped WVU tennis improve in several aspects of the program. In 2019-20, he was a part of a West Virginia team that produced the best start to a women's tennis season since 1986. Eddins also aided in recruiting the highest-rated signing class in program history in 2020, which came in at No. 29 nationally in Tennis Recruiting Network's (TRN) annual list.
A native of Huntington, West Virginia, Eddins came to Morgantown after serving as the assistant coach at Auburn for one year (2018-19). During his season with the Tigers, Eddins helped guide the team to a 14-win season, in which they held a team-high national ranking of 25 and upset then-No. 13 Georgia Tech during the 2019 ITA Kickoff Weekend. Eddins also aided in Auburn securing the 15th-best recruiting class in the nation during the fall of 2018.
Prior to the 2018-19 season, he served as the associate head coach at Western Carolina, where he helped oversee one of the most successful stretches in WCU history that included a school-record win total in 2016.
Eddins' coaching career also includes stops at Pittsburgh, Cornell, and Marshall.
Before his time at Marshall, he was a two-time West Virginia high school state singles champion, as well as the doubles state champion his senior year. Eddins graduated from Marshall University in 2008 with a degree in business management and a minor in marketing.
He and his wife, Michaela Kissell-Eddins, have four children, Kylie, Gavin, Jayce, and Carter.