Alexander Free was hired as Idaho State's head men's tennis coach in April of 2020.
Free comes to Pocatello with a wealth of tennis experience. He spent the last two years as a volunteer at Arizona where most recently in 2020 he helped coach the Wildcats to an 11-3 record in dual play and the team had a ranking as high as 23 and finished with an ITA ranking of 38.
The 2018-19 season saw Arizona reach historic heights as the team was ranked as high as No. 21, their highest ranking since 2009. The Wildcats also earned their first NCAA tournament berth in a decade.
Free began his coaching career at Appalachian State. In one season he guided the Mountaineers to a 12-11 record and advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament Semifinals for only the second time in school history.
Free has coached several players who have earned national rankings. This past year at Arizona Jonas Ziverts finished the season ranked No. 55 while Filip Malbasic was ranked No. 63. Ziverts was named the ITA Southwest Rookie of the Year in 2019 and he became the first Wildcat since 2006 to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championships.
Prior to coaching, Free was a student-athlete at Tyler Junior College where he was a part of the 2014 team that advanced to the NJCAA National Championship. Free then spent two years at Texas at Tyler where he was a part of two American Southwest Conference championships and was named first-team All-ASC in in the 2015 season.
Free finished his playing career as a graduate transfer at Appalachian State where he was regularly featured in the doubles lineup before entering the coaching ranks as an assistant in 2019.
Free was a four-time ITA Scholar-Athlete and was elected President of the Student Government at the University of Texas at Tyler in 2015.
Free graduated from Appalachian State in 2019 with a Master's Degree in Higher Education Administration with a specialization in University and Community College Leadership. In 2016, Free graduated Magna Cum Laude from University of Texas at Tyler in political science.
