User:Christavo6060/William J Nichols

Personal
William John Nichols was born to Harry and Bernadette Nichols in Blue Island, Illinois on July 10, 1957. He was raised in Chicago, IL with his two siblings Judy and Robert. He has lived most of his adult life in Wichita, Kansas, but now lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife Ching Chen, a physician. He has four step children, Phoebe, Amy, Chris, and Alice, that live in various parts of the United States.

Tennis
Junior Nichols began playing tennis at the age of 7 with his first tournament win coming at the age of 10. He began playing national tournaments at the age of 12, where he was ranked 12th nationally. In both the 14 and 16 age group he was ranked top 30 nationally, while in the under 18’s he was ranked top 50.

College

Nichols began his college career in junior college at Central Texas College in Killeen, TX. Here he made the finals of the 1977 National Junior College Championships. Following this title, he transferred to Wichita State University in the fall of 1977 where he would play until 1980. He would play #3 singles and #2 doubles all three years (partnering with Nigel Orouke all three years). It was at Wichita State that his team would win three conference championships. Individually, he would win 3 singles conference (’78, ‘79’, ’80) tournaments and 2 doubles conference tournaments (’79,’80). He also finished 3rd in the NCAA Doubles Championship partnering with Orouke, beating the #1 ranked team in the country Steve Denton and Brad Nabors.

Professional

Bill Nichols began playing professional tournaments in the summer of 1978 in the satellite circuit. In the summer of 1979 he progressed to the challenger circuit where he would amass ATP ranking points. In 1980, after college, he would travel to Europe to play numerous Tier I professional tournaments, including the Northern Lawn in Manchester and the Merseyside Open in Liverpool. He and Shocker teammate Paul Smith were alternates for the 1980 Wimbledon Doubles Championships. He retired from professional tennis in 1980 citing marriage and career satisfaction. He briefly came out of retirement in 1982 for one tournament, the Dallas Open, a tier I grand prix event, where he would qualify for the main draw and lose to the number one seed Ramesh Krishnan.

Coaching

After playing professionally Nichols returned home to coach tennis in 1980. Nichols began coaching in Topeka, Kansas as an assistant coach splitting his time between the Topeka Country Club and the Wood Valley Tennis Club where he would coach until 1981. It was then that he moved to Chicago where he would a teaching pro until 1982 at the Midtown Tennis Club. Then in 1982 he would return to the site of his collegiate career at Wichita State University, serving as the assistant coach to the Men’s Tennis Team from 1982-1988. He would take over for Rex Coad as the Head Coach from 1988-2000. During his tenure his teams would win 11 Missouri Valley Championships and Nichols himself would win 4 MVC Coach of the Year honors. Nichols would resign as the Shocker Head coach in 2000 and would move to Omaha, Nebraska, where he would coach the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s women’s team where he coaches presently. Here has won 3 North Central Conference Championship conference titles. Nichols has also coached many notable ATP professionals, coaching Broderick Dyke (ATP #35), Andrew Castle (ATP # 80), Roberto Saad (ATP # 108), and Dale Houston (ATP #280). In 1987 he traveled to Wimbledon, Enlgand, where he would coach Andrew Castle at the Wimbledon Championships as the #1 player from the United Kingdom. Nichols continues to coach individuals today.