FLORIDA SOUTHERN MAKES A RAQUET ABOUT RHETT ROLLYSON.
Photos courtesy of Florida Southern College
Sunshine State Conference (SSC) coaches selected Rhett Rollyson as 2024-2025 Coach of the Year. No tennis coach from Florida Southern College (FSC) has earned the honor since 2002. “Your peers vote for you, which makes it even more special,” Rollyson commented. “The most rewarding thing to me is; I heard from players from other teams, I heard from coaches of other teams, and I also heard from officials who reached out to me and told me it was great honor, and well-deserved. When the people you compete with think enough of you to reach out—that was very special to me.” He led FSC to a 17-8 overall record and a 4-3 record in the conference. The Moccasins finished third in the SSC regular season and won two tournament matches, including a semifinal upset of #2 seed Saint Leo. In Division II, Florida Southern is ranked #14 in the U.S. by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
This season Rollyson’s leadership produced great outcomes. “These are really cool accomplishments that set the bar for where we are looking to go,” he said.
• First 17-win season since 2008.
• First conference tourney win in
13 years.
• First conference final in 23 years.
• First conference winning record in
15 years.
• Broke a seven-year, 10-match,
losing streak to Rollins.
• Broke a 14-year, 20-match,
losing streak to St Leo.
• Back-to-back Regional appearances
for first time in 12 years.
• Division II ranking as high as #11.
• Most wins in a three-year span
since 2007-2009.
• Crowds as large as 200 people
for matches.
• Team grade point average of 3.8.
• Player who earned FSC Male
Scholar Athlete of Year.
• SSC Player of Year for the first
time since 2008.
• Two players who were 1st Team
All-SSC
• FSC all-time single season career
win leader with 22 victories.
Rollyson grew up in Plant City playing basketball and baseball. But as he watched his father play tennis, he became more and more interested in the game and began playing when he was 16. “I was a late bloomer,” he said. “I fell in love with the sport….I enjoyed the one-on-one part of it. I couldn’t blame the point guard who wasn’t getting me the ball. I couldn’t blame the shortstop if he made an error. It is just ‘mano a mano.’ I always enjoyed the mental side of it. It is just you and your opponent out there.” He progressed so rapidly, the Tampa Tribune selected the 1989 PCHS graduate to its county first team. Rollyson walked on to the UF Tennis Team. Later in life he played well enough to become the US Tennis Association Intersectionals 35s national runner-up.
A few years after he graduated from UF with a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism, Rollyson got hired as the national promotional representative for Prince Tennis. He traveled the country holding product training and on-court clinics. Martina Navratilova, Chris Everett, and Virginia Wade partnered with him on his first event. He also worked with luminaries Billy Jean King, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, and on the court with John Isner. Rollyson also worked nationally and internationally as a player representative for Babolat. He left traveling for work when his kids were born, and worked in sales until 2017. At that time, the head tennis coach at the University of South Florida (USF) asked Rollyson to volunteer as an assistant coach. During his four years at USF, the team found success and made the NCAA tournament twice. “That scratched that itch of wanting to get into the coaching profession,” he commented. Florida Southern hired him as its head coach in 2022, so, he got his first head coaching job at 50 years old. “I’m a coach at heart,” he commented. “I am the dad that always coached because I played all sports growing up. I’m a competitive guy. I love molding young people. I love trying to be a positive influence and role model for young people. To be able to do it and get paid for it at a prestigious Division II school like Florida Southern was really a blessing.” FSC has won 30 national championships across all sports, but not one in tennis—yet.
“How many chances am I going to get to be a head coach at a really good Division II school and not have to leave Plant City? Plant City is important to me.” Indeed, Rollyson is on the South Florida Baptist Hospital Board of Trustees, the Strawberry Festival Board of Directors, the YMCA Board of Directors, Raider Champions for PCHS as Chairman, and is very involved at the First Baptist Church.
“I have hopefully touched some of these kids. I consider it a title of affirmation and positivity when they call me coach,” Rollyson said. “My philosophy with my guys is, ‘If I can use tennis as a vehicle to get you prepared for life, to be a better human being, to be a better husband, to be a better father, a better employee—that is what I think my gift is. I want to use tennis as a vehicle for you to be a better person in life. If you can leave our college better than when you got here, I think I have done my job.”
