From Tennis On Campus captain to NCAA Division I coach: Maxwell Koller's tennis journey

Maxwell Koller captained the University of Florida Tennis On Campus program for three years during his undergraduate career and was an integral part of four teams that made deep runs at the TOC National Championship. After successfully running one of the largest club programs in the nation, he's now a proud member of the Oklahoma University men's varsity staff—his third Divison I coaching job since his 2017 graduation.

A competitive junior player and a high school standout before his time in Gainesville, Koller was able to use his TOC experience to help launch his professional career.

"It was probably the most valuable experience I got, including my degree," he reflected. "I just thought it was so cool, whether it be fundraising, recruiting, planning trips, dealing with people or dealing with your committee that you put together.

"At the time, I was trying to run it as close to what I thought was a professional organization, obviously from the mind of a 19-year-old kid. But nonetheless, that's what we were striving for. It was great and I loved every second of it."

Following two assistant coaching jobs, Koller started as Oklahoma's volunteer assistant men's tennis coach in June 2021.

"It was kind of funny because I became a Division I coach at 22 without having any formal playing background," he said. "But I really used my experience with Tennis on Campus to pitch all my skills and attributes. And obviously I could play a little bit.

"I didn't know Tennis on Campus was going to lead me to a Division I job; that wasn't the plan. But at the end of the day, I took it and ran with it. And ever since then, I've just been 24 hours a day, seven days a week trying to make it at a high level in this industry."

In his one-and-a-half years at Bethune-Cookman, Koller helped guide the Wildcats men's team to its first HBCU national championship in program history. He then moved to mid-major Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, for two seasons from 2019-21 before moving to the Big 12 with Oklahoma.

"I'm young, so it's just been pedal to the metal: networking, working hard, grinding, doing everything I can to keep working my way up in this field," he said.