Chuck McCuen

Chuck McCuen is in his eighth year as Director of Tennis Operations, but is entering his 19th year with the Clemson tennis program overall after spending the 2023 season as an assistant coach with the women’s tennis program. Prior to stepping down from coaching on June 7, 2016 to transition to an operations role, McCuen spent eight seasons as the Tigers’ head coach, preceded by six years as an assistant coach.

In McCuen’s eight years as the head coach at Clemson (2009-16), he amassed 109 career wins, and led the Tigers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2013 and 2014. Both seasons, the Tigers won their first-round matches before falling 4-3 to the higher-seeded and home team in the second round, narrowly missing a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16. McCuen’s 2014 team finished the season with a 21-9 record, posting the first 20-win season for the program since 2007.

Three players earned All-America honors four times during McCuen’s tenure as head coach, including Hunter Harrington and Dominique Maden, who reached the semifinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships in 2014. McCuen also coached Doubles All-American Yannick Maden, who was the ACC Men’s Tennis Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2013.

From 2003-08, when McCuen was an assistant coach for the Tigers under then-Head Coach Chuck Kriese, the team won at least 23 matches five consecutive years (2003-07). It was the first time since 1979-86 that the team won 23 or more matches in five straight seasons. The 2004 Clemson team advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight and finished the year with a 26-12 record.

Prior to coming to Clemson, McCuen was the Tennis Director at Georgia State for 19 years. During that time, the Panthers won five conference titles and earned three NCAA Tournament bids in a four-year period (1999, 2000 and 2002). He coached three conference players of the year and 14 all-conference players at Georgia State, and was named conference coach of the year five times during his tenure. McCuen compiled a 261-162 record in 19 seasons with the Panthers.

McCuen attended Gainesville Junior College, where he advanced to the semifinals of the singles draw at the NJCAA National Championships. He went on to transfer to Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla. where he was an NAIA All-American on the court. McCuen earned two undergraduate degrees from Flagler College, in recreation management and history, in 1983. He was inducted into the Flagler Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.

A Clemson man through-and-through, McCuen’s roots start early in the school’s history books and athletic record books. Hoke Sloan, who was the Tigers’ head tennis coach from 1929-57, is his cousin and Carl McHugh, who led the Clemson swimming and diving program from 1947-76, is his great uncle. His grandfather, Matthew Lee McHugh, graduated from Clemson in 1904 and was awarded the Clemson Distinguished Alumni Award in 1981.

McCuen is married to Dr. Linda McCuen and they have one daughter, Lauren, who is a special education teacher in Anderson, S.C.