Jackson Frons, former successful collegiate tennis player and assistant coach of the Occidental men’s tennis team, has been promoted to associate head coach of the men’s tennis team.
“I’m really excited to have another good season with the guys, build on what we did last year and see where we can take the program,” Frons said.
Frons joined Occidental tennis in 2024 as an assistant coach. There, he said he worked closely with Stephen Perkins, the previous head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams, and the current head coach of the women’s team.
Frons said that there are benefits to having one coach who is fully dedicated to the men’s tennis team.
“Obviously, coach Perkins did an incredible job with the program on the men’s and the women’s side, and he and I are still working together,” Frons said. “But having one person who day in and day out is just focusing on one team is opening up what we can do training-wise.”
Perkins said he and Frons are very close and that they work well together.
“I feel like we have a relationship where we can bounce ideas off each other and be pretty transparent with each other,” Perkins said.
Both Frons and Perkins said the Occidental tennis program has a lot of potential.
“We both see the potential that this program has to continue to grow and become a perennial nationally ranked team,” Perkins said. “[Frons] is not going to settle for mediocrity.”
Frons said he believes that the team can exceed expectations this year and in the future.
“The biggest change I want to bring here is blowing the ceiling off, like what people think Occidental tennis can be and what we can achieve,” Frons said. “We already have the tools and the people needed to do that. Now it’s just embracing the belief that we can.”
Frons said he has had a unique path to his new role, with previous jobs in the Creative Writing Department at Middlebury College and as a Graduate Writing Instructor at Syracuse University. Frons said he is also a current reporter for the OPEN Tennis Magazine and writes profiles on highly ranked professional players.
“My background’s actually more as a fiction and narrative prose writer,” Frons said. “Then I started writing about tennis a little bit, and then through that, started doing feature reporting for them. It’s a great way to blend some of my more intellectual and academic interests with the sport that I’ve devoted large portions of my life to.”
The assistant coach of the men’s tennis team, Jesse Kreger, said that with Frons at the helm, Occidental will be able to compete with the best teams in the nation.
“The sky is the limit. We’re in Southern California and we’re in Los Angeles, where tennis is really big. We’ve achieved high national rankings in the past couple of years, and I think we can go even higher,” Kreger said. “One big thing we’re trying to do this year is make the SCIAC playoffs, and then hopefully make a run at the NCAA tournament. I think that’s a realistic goal for us this year.”
Frons said he has a lot of faith in his players to perform well on the court.
“I’m very lucky that we have a great group of guys who make my job really easy,” Frons said. “The stuff they’re already doing is right on the path we need them to be on.”
Kreger said he thinks Frons’ players are talented competitors.
“[Frons] has succeeded at the highest levels in Division III college tennis, and he really knows the sport as well as knows what [his players] are going through,” Kreger said. “He’s a great guy, and he’s really able to connect with students and players. That builds a really great culture.”
Frons said his success as both a collegiate tennis player and coach is due to Bob Hansen, his coach during his time at Middlebury College.
“I was really lucky to play for Bob Hansen, who’s considered the best Division III college tennis coach ever. I’m building a lot on what he did, but also translating that into a more contemporary context,” Frons said.
Frons said his experience with Hansen guides his process as a coach.
“[I learned] a lot about building a team that has a strong identity and culture. I learned what it means to be a competitor,” Frons said. “That’s part of the development process beyond just the nuts and bolts of having good technique and being in good shape — also being a mature adult who competes with integrity and intensity.”
Contact Angus Parkhill at parkhill@oxy.edu
