Women's History Month: Maddie Kobelt, University of Nebraska assistant coach

In connection with Women’s History Month taking place in March USTA Nebraska spotlights Maddie Kobelt, University of Nebraska women’s tennis assistant coach.

Growing up in Ohio, Maddie Kobelt came from a tennis family and was exposed to the sport at an early age. Her dad is a tennis professional and USTA high performance coach who encouraged all sports, but eventually tennis won out. She is now the assistant coach for the University of Nebraska women’s tennis team.

“This year we are celebrating 50 years of women’s athletics at the University of Nebraska, and I am eager to see where the next 50 years takes college women’s sports and tennis,” Kobelt said.

Kobelt played college tennis at Syracuse University and then went on to play professionally on the ITF and WTA tours. She achieved a career-high WTA ranking of 893 in singles and 294 in doubles, and she won 12 ITF doubles titles. She always admired and looked up to her coaches throughout the years and got her feet wet coaching at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

“I accepted a part-time assistant coach position for men’s and women’s tennis at Kenyon College while I was still competing in tournaments,” she said. “I enjoyed the aspect of being part of a team again and being in an exciting environment full of fans in the community who wanted to see the team do well.”

She then spent three years at Syracuse University as the assistant coach for women’s tennis, and the Orange reached an ITA team ranking of 16. While there, she was able to earn a master’s degree in instructional design.

She is in her second year as assistant coach for the Huskers. She hopes to someday be a head coach, but until then she continues to motivate and support student-athletes to reach their playing goals.

“One of the best parts of college coaching is seeing the hard work the team puts in every day, watching them improve and believe in their abilities over the four years we get to work with them,” Kobelt said.