Donovan selected new Baylor tennis coach

Kevin Donovan is getting an opportunity at his dream job.

Again.

The Manker Patten pro was recently announced as the new head tennis coach at Baylor, where he will work alongside Ned Caswell, who will remain the director of tennis at the school as well as director of Manker Patten.

Donovan replaces Dustin Kane, who left after seven seasons for a move back to his native Kansas City. In each of Kane’s seven seasons as head girls’ coach, the Lady Red Raiders won Division II-AA state championships – the second-longest streak in TSSAA history behind Knoxville Webb’s current eight consecutive.

In addition to the hiring of Donovan, Caswell announced that former Chattanooga Christian, Signal Mountain and East Ridge coach Renato Mizutani and current Baylor assistant Jason Tipton will be associate head coaches. Mizutani replaces Parke Lockrow, who moves on to become the middle school coach at Baylor.

Donovan will also maintain his position at Manker Patten, as will Mizutani, who is also a teaching pro at the facility.

He called the match between he and the school “a perfect fit.”

“My family and I are thrilled,” Donovan said by phone Saturday night. “I’ve been waiting patiently and looking for coaching jobs, but when Baylor opened up, these opportunities don’t come around often. When I put my resume in, and Ned thought about it a little bit, he decided it would be a good fit and thought I’d bring some energy over there.”

Baylor was the first prospective job opening he’d turned in a resume for, stating that he’d been “patiently waiting” for a good opportunity.

“Manker Patten is one of my all-time dream jobs,” he said. “Just to have a boss like Ned; the membership; where it is; the city it’s in, it’s just a dream job. On top of that, when the opportunity presented itself and Dustin told me he was leaving, I thought that was icing on the cake, it was probably the only job I’d try to go after.”

Donovan said his only goal is to help maintain the high level of success maintained at the school. In addition to the women’s success, the men’s team has been in seven consecutive state tournaments and won the 2016 championship.

“I’ve worked so hard to get this opportunity,” he said. “I’m extremely blessed and fortunate to be able to help Baylor nation, but I’m not going to stop.

“I’m going to keep working extremely hard to keep the success in the program.”