Worth Richardson is entering his first year as the SCAD Bees Head Coach for the Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams. The Virginia native brings a wealth of experience to Savannah after years coaching collegiality at both the Division I and Division III level as well as most recently working as the head academy coach at Smith Stearns Tennis Academy in nearby Hilton Head, South Carolina.
During the three years prior to joining the Bees, Worth had the pleasure to work with some of the top junior players and coaches in the world. Spending much of his time coaching on the ITF Junior Circuit, academy players reached over 40 ITF finals and claimed the title in more than half of those. Players he worked with also took home multiple gold, silver, and bronze balls at USTA Supernationals and he was fortunate enough to be part of the finals at both the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl 16u Championships. Helping oversee college placement at the academy, he aided players in joining the ranks at of top programs like Wake Forest, Texas, Ohio State, Duke, Notre Dame, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Cornell, and Georgia Tech.
Collegiately, SCAD is his third stop as a head coach with the other two stops North Carolina Wesleyan and Norfolk State resulting in conference coach of the year honors. At Norfolk State he helped lead the women’s program to their first regular or postseason conference championship while also recruiting three players on the men side who would go on to be nationally ranked. Both the men’s and women’s team would have the highest GPA in the athletics department during his tenure and three of his recruits were named conference rookie of the year.
Prior to Norfolk State, Worth was the assistant men’s tennis coach at nearby William & Mary. After three losing seasons prior to his arrival he would help turn the program around going 17-5 and setting a program record for doubles points won. Again he recruited a conference rookie of the year along with two other starters who would lay the ground work for the Tribe’s first CAA Conference Championship in almost a decade.
His first stop as a head coach came at North Carolina Wesleyan College. There he led the men’s team to the USA South Conference title defeating his alma mater Christopher Newport University in the final. During his one year at NC Wesleyan, the men’s program swept the conference awards for player, rookie, and coach of the year. The team was ranked as high as 12th qualifying for the Division III ITA National Indoors. Individual play was highlighted by Robert Kjellberg who would finish the year ranked 5th nationally on the back of winning fall tournaments at Emory and UVA and making a run to the finals of ITA Small College Championships. Kjellberg would be joined as an All-American by Artsiom Prostak as the doubles pair would finish the year ranked second after making the NCAA Division III doubles final.
As the associate head coach of men’s tennis at Bucknell University, Worth coached the doubles team of Zimmer and Cohenca to a high of #48 in the national rankings. Ultimately this would result in the first individual tennis NCAA tournament bid for not just Bucknell, but the entire Patriot League. True to form, Worth recruited Nick Bybel who would go on to be the winningest player in school history winning conference rookie of the year and then conference player of the year in the three years following.
After helping lead Christopher Newport University to their first USA South Conference title in over a decade the All-Conference player would join the team’s coaching staff the following year and finish his degree in economics. While the assistant coach, four players were named ITA All-Americans and the Captains reached a high of 17 in the national rankings.
