Lafayette College’s tennis coach announced his departure from the program on Monday; he will officially leave his role on Nov. 1.
Ralph Van Ormer, finishing with over 100 collegiate wins at Lafayette, will take over as the head tennis coach of Division III Muhlenberg College. The decision was primarily because Muhlenberg offered him a higher salary, he said.
“We grew the team tremendously, as far as the level is concerned,” Van Ormer said, highlighting better recruiting and bringing in higher-ranked players.
Van Ormer said he was approached by Muhlenberg’s athletics department in October. During a campus visit, Muhlenberg staff told Van Ormer that he was a top candidate and was offered the job soon after.
“They just asked me what I wanted,” Van Ormer said. “I told them what I needed, and then I went back to Lafayette and told them what I needed to stay, and it just didn’t come to fruition on their end.”
“We are grateful for the years of service of Coach Van Ormer and wish him well as he takes the helm at Muhlenberg,” Director of Athletics Sherryta Freeman wrote in an email. Both Van Ormer and Freeman declined to comment on the salary negotiations.
Specific coaching salaries are not public, though publicly available Department of Education data states that the average salary of all Lafayette men’s and women’s coaches was $115,635 and $91,790 in 2023, respectively.
The total revenue of both tennis teams in the most recent financial data in 2023 was $369,992, just 1.14% of the college’s overall $32 million athletics revenue that year.
For team captains such as junior Hanna Ganchi, the decision left her “completely in shock.” Many players were in tears after Van Ormer’s announcement, according to multiple captains, which occurred two days after the team participated in the Bloomsburg Invitational.
“He puts so much time into this, so much effort,” Ganchi said. “He cares so much about this team and all of us, like we’re like his daughters to him.”
Senior captain Jake Magnusson acknowledged that the coaching turnover and timing were “not ideal.”
Van Ormer was one of three coaches in the Patriot League simultaneously coaching men’s and women’s rosters. While his teams did not see a winning season in his coaching period, his tenure was marked by various milestones, such as the men’s team defeating Boston University and Loyola Maryland University for the first time.
“Throughout my 10 years, I think every year I grew as a coach and was able to get myself in a better situation and coach different aspects of the game,” he said.
A national search for Van Ormer’s successor began on Oct. 20, according to a GoLeopards news release and active job posting.
