Matt Helsel, the winningest men's tennis coach in Elizabethtown College history, concluded his his 13th season with the Blue Jays in 2013-14 by leading them back to the Commonwealth Conference Final for a sixth straight season.
The Blue Jay men rose to the top of the Commonwealth Conference under Helsel, capturing four league titles. Elizabethtown won three conference championships in a row from 2010-11 to 2012-13 and appeared in the title match in each of its final six seasons in the league.
Helsel led the team to its winningest decade, with 103 wins in his first 10 years as head coach. He passed Robert Garett for the most wins by an E-town men's coach with his 137th in a 9-0 sweep April 26, 2014, at Lycoming.
Elizabethtown followed up a record setting 2009-10 season, in which it won 13 matches, by equalling that total in 2010-11 and 2011-12. In 2010-11, Helsel directed his team past Lycoming in the CC Final, and into the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in school history. The Jays repeated the feat during the 2011-12 season by defeating Lebanon Valley for their second consecutive conference crown and again qualifying for the national tournament.
Every one of the program's top 10 combined wins leaders (singles & doubles) have been coached by Helsel, as have nine of the top 10 singles victors and nine of the top 10 doubles winners.
Helsel became the second coach at the College to achieve 100 career victories when the Jays swept Alvernia, 9-0, April 17, 2011. He is the only coach in school history with 100 or more wins with both the men and women.
In the spring of 2005, Helsel guided the Elizabethtown's men's tennis team to its first conference title in the history of the program as the Blue Jays rattled off a 14-4 overall record and ran up a 7-0 mark in the Commonwealth Conference during the regular season. In the conference playoffs, the Blue Jays blew out Albright 6-1 in the semifinals and defeated Messiah 5-2 in the championship match. In 2007 and again in 2009, the Blue Jays finished as the Commonwealth Conference runner-up. Overall, Helsel has compiled a 138-91 career record with the men's team.
In his first year, he guided the Blue Jays to their fifth consecutive season of a .500 record or better, as E-town went 10-9 overall. Remarkably, the Blue Jays went 10-2 in their last 12 matches of 2002 after a tough start against stiff competition in Hilton Head, S.C.
Helsel coached five players and one doubles team to flight titles at the MAC Individual Championships. Most recently, Josh Riehl '13 and Paul Whitman '13 won flights three and four at the 2011 individual championships.
E-town has had 33 all-conference selections under Helsel. Three times his conference peers have voted him Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year (2005, 2010-11, 2012-13).
In addition to coaching the men's and women's tennis teams at E-town, Helsel is a local real estate agent with Selections Real Estate in Lancaster.
A 1991 graduate of Lampeter-Strasburg High School, he returned to his alma mater as head tennis coach for four years. He was an English and political science double major at Millersville University from 1992 to 1994, and earned a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from Elizabethtown in 2007.
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| Matt Helsel Year-by-Year Men's Coaching Record |
| Overall | Conference | |
| Year | Wins | Losses | Pct. | Wins | Losses | Pct. | Postseason |
| 2002 | 10 | 9 | .526 | 4 | 2 | .667 | |
| 2003 | 12 | 4 | .750 | 5 | 2 | .714 | |
| 2004 | 7 | 7 | .500 | 3 | 4 | .429 | |
| 2005 | 14 | 4 | .778 | 7 | 0 | 1.000 | Commonwealth Conference Champions |
| 2005-06 | 4 | 12 | .250 | 2 | 4 | .333 | |
| 2006-07 | 9 | 12 | .429 | 4 | 2 | .667 | Commonwealth Conference Runner-up |
| 2007-08 | 9 | 6 | .600 | 3 | 1 | .750 | Commonwealth Conference Semifinals |
| 2008-09 | 12 | 4 | .750 | 5 | 0 | 1.000 | Commonwealth Conference Runner-up |
| 2009-10 | 13 | 5 | .722 | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | Commonwealth Conference Runner-up |
| 2010-11 | 13 | 6 | .684 | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | Commonwealth Conference Champions
NCAA Division III Tournament First Round |
| 2011-12 | 13 | 7 | .650 | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | Commonwealth Conference Champions
NCAA Division III Tournament Second Round |
| 2012-13 | 15 | 4 | .789 | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | Commonwealth Conference Champions
NCAA Division III Tournament First Round |
| 2013-14 | 7 | 11 | .389 | 4 | 2 | .667 | Commonwealth Conference Runner-up |
| 13 seasons | 138 | 91 | .603 | 61 | 17 | .782 | |
| * Men's tennis was exclusively a spring sport until 2005, but began competing in the fall and spring seasons starting with the 2005-06 season. |
