Matt Helsel was named the head coach of the men's tennis program at Elizabethtown late in the spring of 2002, and is currently in his ninth season as head men's coach in 2010-11. He’s done a nice job with the Blue Jays, compiling a 90-63 career record in that time frame.
The 2009-10 season saw Elizabethtown collect 13 wins, its most since 2005. Helsel’s bunch finished as the Commonwealth Conference runners-up for the third time since he took the reins of the program. The Blue Jays also registered 10 wins or more for the second straight season, marking just the third time in the program’s 64-year history that they’ve had back-to-back double-digit win seasons.
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 runners-up.
In his first year, he guided the Blue Jays to their fifth consecutive .500-or-better season, 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 also coached Bill Miller '02 to his first appearance in the Middle Atlantic Conference individual singles championship match in 2002.
Under Helsel, Blue Jay players have received all-conference recognition 16 times since 2002, and Helsel himself was named the Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year in 2005. Also in 2005, Greg Voshell '05 and Josh Miller '05 each earned Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporation (MASCAC) individual singles championships at number three and number four, respectively.
Helsel has built up strong non-traditional season schedules for both the women's and men's tennis teams. The men's team travels to Hilton Head, S.C. for a non-traditional season spring break tournament.
In addition to coaching the men's and women's tennis teams at E-town, Helsel is a local real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Select Professionals 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.
