Monday, Director of Athletics Samantha Huge announced Toni Bickford as William and Mary’s 10th women’s tennis head coach. Prior to this, Bickford served as an assistant coach for the Tribe from 2008-2011, then assistant coach at Iowa and Old Dominion, respectively.
During her time as an assistant coach at the College, Bickford played a role in the Tribe’s 40 victories in just three seasons. The College ended each of those three seasons nationally ranked: No. 49 in 2009, No. 56 in 2010 and No. 44 in 2011.
Bickford has been named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year twice in her career, the most recent being last season with the Monarchs. In that same season, Bickford helped the team to its highest end of year national ranking, at No. 48, in 17 years.
After picking up tennis at age six, Bickford went on to win 12 junior Bulgarian National titles from 1990-1997, was a member of the 1998 Bulgarian Fed Cup Team, was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 1999 at Iowa and, along with teammate Shera Wiegler, became the first doubles team in Iowa history to compete in the NCAA tournament in 1999. Just last year, Bickford was inducted into the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame for her accomplishments.