Abilene Christian’s longest-serving active head coach and a two-time Southland Conference Coach of the Year, Hutton Jones is at the start of his 24th season at the helm of the men’s tennis program. His record with the Wildcats is an eye-popping 432-230 (.653), and from 1997-2018 he simultaneously led the ACU women's team to an overall mark of 508-139 (.785).
Jones By The Numbers (with ACU Men's Tennis)
• 432 Wins
• 15 Conference Championships
(13 Lone Star, 2 Southland)
• 1 DI NCAA Qualifier
(Josh Sheehy)
• 1 Southland Conference Student-Athlete of the Year
(Josh Sheehy)
• 2 CoSIDA Academic All-America
(John Cole, Hans Hach)
• 2 Newcomers of the Year
(Hunter Holman, Akinori Wada)
• 6 Players of the Year
(Casper Steenkamp, Ryan Hudson, Hans Hach [x3], Josh Sheehy)
• 7 Freshmen of the Year
(Juan Nunez, Luke Hawk, Eldad Campbell, Nicklas Wingord, Josh Sheehy, Jonathan Sheehy, Dimitris Azoides)
• 9 DII All-Americas
(Dustin Hawk, Jason Kirkland, Andrew Cole, Artin Tafazoli, Jake Hendrie, Hans Hach [x3], Nick Plum)
• 11 DII NCAA Championship Appearances
(1997-98, 2001, 2003-04, 2007-12)
• 21 Southland Conference Players of the Week
(Nico Agritelley, Dimitris Azoides, Hunter Holman [x2], Niko Moceanu, Jonathan Sheehy [x3], Josh Sheehy [x13])
• 58 Academic All-Conference honorees
(13 Southland Conference, 45 Lone Star Conference)
• 66 – ITA National Ranking on Feb. 25, 2016
• 107 All-Conference honorees
(30 Southland Conference, 77 Lone Star Conference)
Personal
Jones was head tennis professional at Ponca City (Okla.) Country Club before his appointment at ACU Jan. 1, 1997. He was a four-year tennis letterman for the Wildcats and assistant coach two years. A 1977 graduate of New Richmond (Ohio) High School, Jones received a B.A. degree in finance in 1981 and M.S. degree in management in 1983 from ACU.
He was assistant coach at ACU in 1984-85 for Allen Tappe and 1985-86 for Cecil Eager. He competed in tennis at ACU from 1978-81 and served as team captain as a senior in 1981. He also has directed ACU summer tennis camps and served as assistant tennis professional at Abilene Country Club and head tennis professional at McAllen Country Club.
He is married to the former Paula Plasek, also a former Wildcat tennis player, and the couple has three children, including daughters Hayley and Payton, and son, Hutton Jones Jr., who was a three-year letterman at ACU.
