Jessie Daw has helped tennis return to Northern State as an NCAA sport. Daw has been at NSU since 2001 as an assistant professor of health and physical education. She was hired as the head tennis coach for the program that returned to competition at Northern in 2007-08.
"I'm very fortunate to be back in my home state teaching," said Daw, who is originally from Sioux Falls. "Now I'm honored to lead the effort in bringing back the great sport of tennis to NSU."
In their first year of competition, Daw led the growing program to a 3-12 record. The squad gained a conference victory and took seventh in the league. Daw aims to build the program to be a contending force in the conference.
While growing up in Sioux Falls, Daw was the state's top-ranked player in the 14, 16, and 18 age groups. She also held a top three ranking in the Northern Section during those years, and has been ranked nationally as high as 20th in doubles and 100th in singles.
Prior to coming to NSU, Daw served as assistant men's and women's coach at the University of Idaho and was the head women's tennis coach at Illinois State. In 1993 she was named Missouri Valley Conference tennis coach of the year.
Daw received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1999 with an emphasis in sport psychology, psycho-social aspects of youth sport, and coach education. At Illinois, Daw was the first tennis player to qualify for nationals, playing doubles at the ITCA national championships in 1985.
