Mike Perez enters his 37th season as the head of both the men’s and women’s tennis programs at Lynn University. With seven national championships under his belt, he has shown consistency in not only producing champions on the tennis courts, but also in the classroom. He has coached 78 All-Americans on the men’s side and 126 on the women’s side while leading both teams to academic success season after season.
He was inducted into the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame in the spring of 2020.
Perez's tennis programs have become synonymous with success, evidenced by his 1,000-plus career victories. Boasting an overall record of 1,255-337 (.788), Perez earned his 1000th win when the men's team defeated Florida Tech 5-1 on April 2, 2016. He has notched 711 victories for a winning percentage of .847% on the women's side, and 544 wins on the men's side for a winning percentage of .699%.
Perez guided Lynn's women's tennis team to NAIA National Championships in 1993, 1995, and 1996. In the first year of competition in NCAA Division II (1997), he claimed the program's first Division II National Title, and then added two more in 1998 and 2001. The 2001 championship season ended with a 5-3 victory over BYU-Hawaii, the Seasiders' first Division II loss after a 103-match winning streak. On the men's side, Perez coached his 2007 squad to the program's first NCAA Championship.
After entering the Sunshine State Conference in 1998, Perez has totaled 16 SSC Titles and a combined men's and women's SSC record of 304-64 (.826). In 206 SSC women's contests, Perez has only lost a total of 22 matches. In 2022, he led the men's tennis program to their first regular-season SSC title, while in 2024, the Fighting Knight women claimed the SSC regular-season title for the first time since 2019.
Always clutch on the big stage, the women’s team made 26 consecutive NCAA Championship appearances since becoming a Division II institution in 1997, and have made 16 final fours during that span.
On the men's side, Perez's squads have reached the postseason 16 times since beginning NCAA play in 1997. The Blue and White reached the final match in both 2006 and 2007.
In 2007, Perez earned Top Coach on the First 25 Years on the SSC's Women's Tennis Silver Anniversary Team. He was also named the NAIA Coach of the Decade for 1990-00.
Other honors claimed by Perez:
- NAIA National Coach of the Year in 1993, 1995 and 1996
- 13x Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year (1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2006, 2007, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016)
- Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame Coach of the Year in 2002
- 2009 ITA Women's Regional Coach of the Year
- 2007 ITA Men's Regional and National Coach of the Year
- 2006 ITA Women's Regional Coach of the Year
An accomplished high school and collegiate baseball player in Arizona, Perez moved to Florida in 1988 and joined the Lynn athletics family as an assistant tennis coach. One season later, he assumed the reigns of both the men's and women's program, putting into motion what has proved to be a tradition of success, excellence and dominance.
