Mike Edles

Cal Poly women’s tennis head coach Ellie Edles Williams announced the hiring of Mike Edles, her father, as an assistant coach on July 27, 2023.

Edles, a five-time Big West Coach of the Year, compiled three NCAA Tournament berths, four Big West regular season titles, 12 Big West Championship match appearances and 15 winning campaigns across 20 seasons as the UC Irvine head women's tennis coach before retiring in 2016.

Edles helped the Anteaters earn their first Big West tournament championship in program history in 2010, and was named the ITA West Region Coach of the Year in 2007 and the ITA Southwest Region Coach of the Year in 2010. In 2013, he led UC Irvine to a school record 23 wins, a perfect regular season conference record, the team’s third ever trip to the NCAA Tournament and the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory. The Anteaters also reached a national ranking of 23rd that season, the highest in program history.

Edles compiled an overall record of 288-197 during his time at UCI, coaching three Big West Player of the Year recipients, 49 All-Big West singles players and 31 All-Big West doubles tandems.

This is the second time Edles has served as an assistant coach under his daughter. In 2021-22 when Williams was the interim head coach at Cal State Fullerton, Edles took on volunteer coaching duties during the spring 2022 season.

Edles played on the UC Irvine men’s tennis team from 1975-79, earning All-American honors in singles and doubles in 1977 and helping the Anteaters win the NCAA Division II national championship that season. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from UCI in December 1979 and went straight into coaching, serving as the head men’s tennis coach at CSU Bakersfield from 1979-82, Chapman University from 1982-88 and Cal State East Bay (formerly known as Cal State Hayward) from 1988-92. At CSU Bakersfield, he led the team to two California Collegiate Athletic Association titles (1981, 1982). At Hayward, Edles led the program to four California Collegiate Athletic Association titles and three NCAA Division II national championships (1985, 1987, 1988), while earning Division II Coach of the Year honors twice (1986, 1988).

Edles won a Northern California Athletic Conference championship at Cal State East Bay in 1991 before moving on to Boise State to serve as their head women's tennis coach from 1992-95. He guided the Broncos to their first Big Sky Conference championship in program history in 1995, earning Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year honors that year. Edles went 42-26 overall during his time at Boise State.

Edles spent a year as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s teams at Hawai’i (1996-97) before returning to his alma mater in 1997.