The Men's and Women's Tennis teams are under the direction of John Peterson.  He began his tenure in Tyler in 1987, and his teams have experienced great success throughout the years.  Men's tennis has won ten national championships under Coach Peterson, and women's tennis has nine national championships to their credit since 1987.  In December of 2000, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association named Coach Peterson the Junior College National Coach of the Decade.  He was the only coach named coach of the decade in both the men's and women's division.  

Coach Peterson graduated from Buena Vista College in 1967, earning four college football letters, two basketball letters, and one track letter.

After coaching and teaching at Fort Dodge High School, he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1971.  In 1975, he left the Air Force and went to Nimitz Middle School in San Antonio, Texas.  He was the head of the athletic department, and taught middle school physical education and coached football, basketball, track and tennis.  In 1979 he was named Head Tennis coach at San Antonio Churchill High School.  At Churchill, he won the state team tennis championships five times, and was the runner-up two other years.  He was named the Texas High School Tennis Coach of the Year two times.  

Coach Peterson is married to the former Dorothy Driver and has two children and four grandchildren.

For information about Apache Tennis, contact Coach Peterson at jpet@tjc.edu or 903/510-2313.