Wofford College Athletics

Rod Ray is in his 26th year as the head tennis coach at Wofford College during the 2025-26 season. He is the longest-tenured head coach currently at Wofford.  He also served as the Terriers’ head women’s coach for eight years until the 2007-08 season. Ray took over the Wofford tennis teams in 2000, three years after the transition to Division I, building a highly competitive program. 

Over his 25 years, the team has recorded 198 victories overall and 73 wins in Southern Conference Play. Eighteen players have earned a total of 29 All-Southern Conference honors. In addition, 14 players have been named to the SoCon All-Freshman Team, including the 2007 Freshman of the Year George Kernoodle. 
   
One of Ray’s most successful players, Andrew Stubbs, finished his career in 2008 with four straight All-Southern Conference accolades. Stubbs was the first Terrier men’s player to earn league honors more than once. He joined former women’s player, Ellen Rogers ’06, as the only Wofford tennis players in school history to receive All-SoCon honors all four years. Stubbs was inducted to the Wofford Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014. 
   
Academically, the squad has been honored multiple times as an ITA All-Academic Team. 

Ray came to Wofford from the Topspin Racquet and Swim Club in Lexington, S.C., where he served as the tennis director for nearly 10 years. He has been a prominent fixture in South Carolina tennis, serving as coach for the South Carolina Junior Davis/Federation Cup Team, USTA Junior Player Development Program, Zonal Coach, and as president of the South Carolina Tennis Professional Association. In 1998, Ray was named South Carolina Tennis Association Professional of the Year. Certified by the USPTA, he has obtained a Professional 1 rating. Each summer he runs the Rod Ray Tennis Camp at Wofford, bringing in youth from across the Southeast. In 2022 he received a USTA South Carolina Coach of the Year Award,

Ray earned a bachelor of science degree in political science and a masters degree in political science from East Tennessee State in 1987, where he played on the Buccaneer tennis team in 1984 and 1985. He went on to earn his MBA from Colorado State in May of 2013. He and his wife, Merritt, have two sons, Cole and Ashe. Cole ran cross country at Gardner-Webb University and Ashe '24 played tennis at Wofford.