Ron Gendron took over the coaching reins of the Nichols College men’s and women’s tennis programs in August 2022.
The Bison tennis programs continued to thrive under Gendron's guidance in 2024-25, with both winning their respective Conference of New England Championship titles. For the women, it was the program's first title win since the 2018-19 campaign, which they earned by way of a 4-0 sweep of Endicott College back on October 19th. As a result, the team received the automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III Tournament, where they faced off against No. 14 ranked Tufts University in the opening round. The team also saw a lengthy list of postseason All-Conference honorees, including a full-on sweep of the major awards with CNE Player of the Year Antonia Carrero, Rookie of the Year Kamora Helton, and Scholar Athlete of the Year Johanna Schroeder. Alongside that list of major award recipients, and their five total All-Conference honorees, Gendron was also tabbed as the CNE Women's Tennis Coach of the Year for his efforts.
Meanwhile, the men's program claimed its 15th overall conference title on May 2nd, topping Colby-Sawyer College by the same final score of 4-0. The Bison then made their 12th appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament, where they faced off against No. 68 ranked Allegheny in the opening round on May 9th in Annapolis, Maryland. Following their championship campaign, the Bison saw their own list of postseason honors, highlighted by CNE Player of the Year Richard Hartmann Luzio, as well as Gendron's second round of Coach of the Year laudits in 2024-25. In total, the postseason list also featured five total All-CNE performers between singles and doubles play.
Throughout his tenure on The Hill, Gendron has reached the conference championship match a total is six times split evenly between the women's (2022, 2023, 2024) and men's (2023, 2024, 2025) programs, with four combined victories. Gendron, including his honor in 2024-25, is a three time Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) / Conference of New England (CNE) Coach of the Year.
His second season; 2023-24 brought much success to the Bison tennis programs. The women's program reached the CCC championship match, falling to Endicott 5-4 in a tight match. Athlete Johanna Schroeder was named the CCC player of the year. The men's program went a perfect 9-0 in conference matches, and won their third-straight and 14th total conference championship in a 5-0 win over Endicott. They went onto the Bowdoin regional in NCAA tournament action, where they beat Farmingdale State 5-0 in the first round before falling to host Bowdoin in round two action.
In 2022-23, his first season with the Bison, he led the women's program to the CCC championship match, and helped the men's program to their 13th CCC championship, by way of a 5-0 win over Roger Williams University. In the NCAA tournament, Gendron and the team picked up a 5-0 with against Houghton, before falling in the second round of the tournament to No. 11 Bowdoin.
Piror to coming to Nichols, Gendron spent the past 16 seasons serving as the head coach at Bryant University. During his time in Smithfield, R.I., Gendron secured 200 career victories, 170 of which came against Division I competition.
In 2019, Gendron set a Northeast Conference (NEC) record when he was named Coach of the Year for the seventh-consecutive season. Under Gendron's direction, the Bulldogs appeared in six-straight NCAA Tournaments from 2014-19, winning the NEC title each year during that span. Gendron’s squads totaled a 47-4 record in NEC play.
Under Gendron’s watch, a total of 61 student-athletes garnered NEC All-Conference accolades, two of which went on to be inducted into the Bryant University Hall of Fame.
A 1990 graduate of Providence College, Gendron was a member of the Friars men’s tennis team. He later went on to begin his coaching career with the Providence men and Bryant women in 2003 as a volunteer assistant.
