Bio

David Schwarz, who has guided the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's tennis team to national titles three times in the last four seasons it has competed (2018, 2022, 2023), enters his 10th season as the head coach for the program in 2023-24.

As a head coach, Schwarz has now been at the helm for five NCAA Division III national championships, including two as the head coach of the men's tennis program at Middlebury in 2004 and 2010. When he earned his first title with the Athenas in 2018, he became only the fifth coach to win NCAA titles in both men's and women's tennis, and the first ever to do it at two different schools. 

Over his first nine years with CMS, Schwarz has compiled an impressive 199-17 record for a .921 winning percentage. He has also led the Athenas to a 61-2 career record (.968) in SCIAC matches, as well as seven league championships.  

The 2022 national championship saw CMS have a meteoric rise over the course of the season, on its way to a 27-3 final record. After a two-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Athenas started slow, including a fourth-place finish at the ITA Indoors, but by the time nationals rolled around, CMS was clicking on all cylinders. The Athenas won their quarterfinal 5-2 over MIT, the semifinal 5-0 over an undefeated Wesleyan team, and the national title 5-1 over top-ranked Chicago.  

The Athenas repeated as national champions in 2023 with a more challenging road after graduating three seniors from its 2022 national title lineup. The Athenas had to come from behind to defeat Pomona-Pitzer 5-4 in the regional finals, and then defeat Amherst 5-4 in the quarterfinals, Emory 5-1 in the semifinals and Chicago 5-3 in the finals a rematch of the 2022 national title. CMS ended the year with a 27-1 record and a 23-match win streak after falling to Chicago in the ITA Indoor Championship. 

Schwarz' first women's national title came in 2018 as CMS hosted the event at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. The Athenas had a difficult path through Williams and Emory in the semifinals and finals, the two prominent national powers at the time who had combined for the last 10 national titles (and 16 of the last 17), and which had both defeated CMS during the regular season. The Athenas came through, though, with a 5-3 win over Williams and a 5-4 win over Emory to hold the national championship trophy for the first time. 

In between the two titles, CMS nearly went back-to-back before falling 5-4 to Wesleyan in the national championship match in 2019. The Athenas were then 14-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation in 2020, with the two top singles players in the country and the top doubles team, and won the first ITA Indoor Championship in program history, before the pandemic prevented CMS from pursuing a possible national crown. 

In his first three full seasons before the 2018 title, earned a third-place finish in 2017 and a fourth-place finish in 2015. Schwarz took the Athenas through an undefeated regular season during the 2016-17 year and led them to the NCAA semifinals, receiving the 2017 ITA National Coach of the Year. 

In addition to the team championships, Schwarz has also coached the doubles pair of Catherine Allen (Scripps '20) and Caroline Cox (CMS '21) to a 2019 national championship, defeating their own teammates in the finals, Nicole Tan (CMC '20) and Sarah Bahsoun (CMC '22) as the two Athena duos finished 1-2 in the national rankings. He also had another doubles pair in Caroline Ward (CMC '16) and Katie Kuosman (CMC '17), who were national runners-up in 2015 and 2016, while Tan and Lindsay Brown (CMC '18) were national runners-up in 2017.

Prior to coming to CMS, Schwarz spent 14 years as a head coach at the Division I and III levels. He most recently was the head coach of the Brown University men’s tennis program, where he went 57-35 over four seasons (2010-2014).  Prior to Brown, his head coaching career began at the Division III level for the men’s team at Middlebury College (2000-2010).

During his tenure at Middlebury, Schwarz became the most successful men’s tennis coach in program history, sending the school to its first NCAA postseason appearance. In 10 seasons at Middlebury, he had an overall record of 174-37 (.825), while leading the Panthers to national prominence. Under Schwarz’s guidance, Middlebury made eight-straight trips to the NCAA final four, with the 2004 squad capturing the school’s first NCAA Tennis national title. His success that season earned him the ITA Coach of the Year. Schwarz’s 2006 and 2007 teams set school records at the time, with 22 wins each season. Those records were eclipsed in 2010 when the Panthers earned a 23-2 mark en route to Middlebury’s second national championship in men’s tennis.

The ITA Division III National Coach of the Year in 2004, Schwarz was named NESCAC Coach of the Year in 2002, 2004, 2007, and 2010, and earned ITA Regional Coach of the Year honors in both 2009 and 2010.

Schwarz played his collegiate tennis at Cornell University, where he graduated in 1989 after growing up in Ithaca. Schwarz began his collegiate coaching career at his alma mater in the fall of 1996 as the assistant men’s and women’s tennis coach. Following one year in that role, he became the assistant men’s coach (1997-2000), spending the 1998-99 season as an assistant with the women as well. The Northeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2000, Schwarz was also the managing director of the Cornell Tennis & Squash Center.

Born in Providence, Schwarz received a master’s degree from Cortland State (N.Y.) in 1994.