Kris Nord Position: Head Coach Experience: 31st year in 2012-13

The 2012-13 season is men's tennis coach Kris Nord's 31st year at the University of Montana. In his three-plus-decade tenure with the Grizzlies, Nord has coached men's tennis, women's tennis and women's golf.

With the 2011-12 season marking Nord's 30th year with the Grizzlies, he celebrated his anniversary in style by leading Montana to its first-ever Big Sky Conference title. His peers voted him Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year.

The Grizzlies, who were ranked 10th in the ITA Mountain Region at season's end, went 16-5 during the 2012 spring season and a perfect 8-0 in Big Sky Conference matches.

Another program first occurred when Nord coached three of his players to first-team All-Big Sky Conference honors: Mikolaj Caruk, Michael Facey and Ethan Vaughn. Andrea Luczak, who earned honorable-mention honors, was the team's fourth player honored.

Montana was equally impressive in the classroom. Six of Nord's seven primary players on his 2012 championship squad earned Academic All-Big Sky Conference honors, including all three who also earned first-team honors on the court.

Montana had a 3.39 team grade point average during the same spring semester it won its Big Sky championship and ended 2011-12 with a 3.33 team cumulative GPA.

Nord was hired as the head women's and assistant men's tennis coach in 1982. He became the head coach for both programs in 1986.

Nord coached both programs until 2006, when Montana hired its first fulltime women's coach.

Under mainly Nord's guidance, the women's program has advanced to the Big Sky Conference postseason tournament every year since 1990. The men's team has played in the postseason tournament every year since 1991.

The men's team was the Big Sky Conference tournament runner-up in 2006 and 2012 and has eight third-place ties to its credit during its current streak of tournament appearances.

Nord was named the Mountain West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1986 for his work with the Montana women's tennis team.

A Missoula native, Nord graduated from Sentinel High School in 1976 after winning the state AA singles title. He was also named all-state in football and basketball.

Nord was recruited to play football for the Grizzlies but opted to sign a tennis scholarship with UNLV, where he spent his freshman and sophomore years.

Following his second year, Nord took a year off from college and went to Alaska, where he served as a teaching professional at Tanana Valley Community College in Fairbanks.

Nord enrolled at Boise State in the fall of 1979, and he finished out his collegiate tennis career with the Broncos. He was the Big Sky Conference champion at No. 3 singles and BSU's Big Sky Conference Scholar-Athlete in 1981.

Nord spent a year on the Satellite Circuit before being appointed to the Montana tennis coaching staff in 1982.

Nord, who earned a degree in health and human performance from UM in 1986, served as Montana's first women's golf coach from 1993 to 1996.

Nord's late father, Ron, was the head basketball coach for the Grizzlies from 1962 to 1968 and was an assistant football coach from 1969 to 1974. His brothers, Jeff and Mark, both played basketball for the Grizzlies.

Nord and his wife, Robi, have two sons, Anders and Isak.