Coach Profile: David Purpura
Bridgewater State Men’s and Women’s Tennis Head Coach David Purpura just clinched the record for most Women’s Tennis wins after the team’s victory against Vermont State, Castleton. This is his 64th win in his eight seasons at BSU.
The Bears came in 3rd place in the Little East Conference this season, while they were polled at 4th place in the preseason poll. Coach Purpura said that this BSU team is a “great and talented group, that rallied around each other.” BSU went on to host a Little East Quarterfinal matchup at the Rosen Courts against the 6th place Western Connecticut State Wolves and lost in an upset 5-4. This gives Coach Purpura mixed emotions on how the season went. Purpura is now 64-42 in his BSU Women’s Tennis Coaching career and 25-43 for Men’s Tennis.
Coach Purpura graduated from Northeastern in 2005, where he double majored in political science and journalism. He originally attended UMass Dartmouth as a freshman and helped take their tennis team to a Little East Championship in 2001 before transferring. While at Northeastern, he wrote press releases for Massachusetts State Senator Marc Pacheco (D), who represents the 1st Plymouth and Bristol district. He also played club tennis at Northeastern, which Purpura described as “pretty competitive.”
Purpura is also a history and social studies teacher at Taunton High School, where he is in his 17th year. He also coached girls tennis there from 2005-2015 and secured a 123-83 record, taking them to eight straight playoff berths. He also coached boys soccer for four seasons before taking the BSU job.
Coach Purpura was led into coaching the Bears by an athlete that he coached while at Taunton. Her name is Alisha Silva, who contacted her former coach when John Nestel left after the 2015 season. Then, Purpura got hired and he, Silva, and the rest of the BSU squad lead them to a LEC Championship in Purpura’s first season, where they would make their 5th NCAA Tournament appearance in nine years. They would go on to lose to Colby-Sawyer at Bowdoin College in May 2017.
