Bio

Since the relaunch of the Hillsdale College men's tennis program in 2014-15, the Chargers have had only one head coach -- Keith Turner.

And during his eight years as the head of the program, Turner has built up the men's squad from square one and into a competitive team in both the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and the Midwest Region at large.

In 2018, Hillsdale College's first year in the G-MAC, the Chargers won both the regular season and tournament titles, Hillsdale's first conference title in men's tennis in nearly a century. Just three years later, Turner repeated those accomplishments, guiding Hillsdale to the 2021 G-MAC regular-season and tournament titles and, ultimately, the program's first NCAA Division II tournament berth in its history.

In the 2021-22 season, the Chargers saw a series of historic individual accomplishments under Turner's watch, as Brennan Cimpeanu became the first Hillsdale player to win an ITA Midwest Regional title in singles and also earned recognition as the program's first NCAA DII All-American. Cimpeanu also teamed with Sean Barstow to earn runner-up honors in doubles at the ITA Midwest Regional, and both players became the first Chargers to compete in the ITA Cup, the de-facto NCAA DII singles and doubles national championships, in October 2021 in Rome, Georgia.

Turner hit a special milestone in the 2022-23 season, recording his 200th career match victory as a collegiate head tennis coach. During his time with the Chargers, Turner has been named G-MAC Coach of the Year twice, and coached 2018 G-MAC Player of the Year Milan Mirkovic and Cimpeanu, the 2021 G-MAC Freshman of the Year.

Turner came to Hillsdale College after a successful two-year stint at nearby Albion College. He previously served as the head tennis coach at DII Limestone College in South Carolina, guiding that school’s men’s team to NCAA DII tournament appearances in 2009 and 2010. He earned Coach of the Year honors in Conference Carolina in 2010. He also served as head coach at Lees-McRae, a DII institution in North Carolina.

“This is an exciting challenge, one I’ve always wanted to do,” Turner said. “There’s a lot of good tennis in the area, and this is a very good tennis conference. I want to get this team to be as competitive as possible as soon as possible.”

While putting together excellent teams on the court, he has also placed a high emphasis on the academic performance of his teams, and they were rewarded during his two seasons at Albion. Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams there earned the highest overall grade point averages in their respective sports in the MIAA in 2013, with his women’s team winning that honor again in 2014.

Travis Vanhoy at Lees-McRae was named the Conference Carolina Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2011 under Turner’s guidance.

“Coach Turner has a diverse coaching background that has prepared him well for the challenges of building a men’s tennis program at Hillsdale College,” stated college Athletic Director Don Brubacher. “We look forward to working with him and are excited about the future of Charger men’s tennis.”

Turner grew up in the Detroit suburb of Clarkston, and went on to play tennis collegiately at Boston University and Western Michigan University. He is a 1995 grad of WMU, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in public law. He went on to get his master’s degree in sports administration from Wayne State University in 1997. He worked in the automotive industry from 1997-2007 before returning to the tennis coaching circuit.

He got back into the tennis game by working as an assistant coach at Emory & Henry College before being named Limestone’s head coach in August of 2007. He’s also worked as a tennis teaching professional at the Schroeder Tennis Center in Tipp City, Ohio.

“I’m going to be looking for good players, but players who are strong in academics and practice good sportsmanship,” Turner said. “You coach because it’s something you love to do, and when you have players who don’t act the right way on the court, it’s not fun. We will compete hard, but we’ll do it the right way.”