Trevor Melton ('23) stands between outgoing Assistant Coach Herman Lewis (left) and Head Coach Danny Rodriguez, who coached him for four seasons at Liberty.
Flames graduate Melton takes Rodriguez’s place at helm of racquetball team
7/7/2025 3:30:00 PM | Racquetball
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Trevor Melton (’23) succeeds program founder Danny Rodriguez who guided Liberty to four consecutive MACRC regular-season championships.
Former Liberty University racquetball standout Trevor Melton ('23), who served as captain and a spiritual leader for his last two seasons on the team, succeeded founding Head Coach Danny Rodriguez at the helm last week.
Melton placed a program-best third in the Division I Blue singles bracket at the USA Racquetball National Championships at Ohio State University in March 2023 as well as fourth in the Division I Gold doubles bracket playing with graduate Garrison Walker. He will look to build on the team's success in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Racquetball Conference — where the Flames and Lady Flames are four-time defending combined champions — and at the national level.
Trevor Melton (center) is flanked by Tim Adams (left) and doubles partner Garrison Walker after leading the Flames to a fourth-place team finish at the USA Racquetball Collegiate National Championships at Ohio State University in March 2023.
"Trevor's going to do a great job," Rodriguez said. "He is a very good player, and he's helped me in the past when he was on the team and I asked him to lead drills."
Rodriguez started the program with six players in 2011 and had 18 (10 men and eight women) on this past season's roster. All but three of them are expected to return to the team this fall, including brothers Matthew, Andrew, and Nathan Cook, who rival Melton as some of the best players who have come through the program.
"It has been an amazing venture and awesome experience that I have taken with Liberty University," Rodriguez said. "Coaching these young students has been … a wonderful part of my life."
Melton said Rodriguez and Herman Lewis — the Club Sports Male Assistant Coach of the Year at this spring semester's Choice Awards who is also retiring this summer — demonstrated a tremendous talent for developing newcomers to the sport as freshmen into national contenders by their senior seasons.
"Danny and Herman had great patience for all of the newer players coming in with no knowledge," he said, noting they taught players fundamentals such as how to hold the racquet and stroke techniques as well as tactics and game strategy. "They were very loving and kind and wanted to develop their games and understanding of the sport."
Melton said they were interested in developing their players to be men and women of high character off the court and turning them into champions on it.
"Coach Rodriguez definitely valued our academic integrity and grades," Melton said. "He wanted us to come to college and enjoy racquetball but also to do what we signed up to do when we came to college. Most people didn't come to college to play racquetball. He wanted to further their careers academically and professionally while really enjoying the sport they fell in love with in college."
Melton desires to maintain the spiritual and social team culture Rodriguez developed at Liberty, providing plenty of fellowship opportunities between players and opponents.
"Especially as a spiritual leader, being able to lead Bible studies and answer questions teammates would have about the faith was beneficial to each of our lives (as players), to grow closer to God and to one another," he said.
He and his assistant coach, who will be announced this month, will look to build up team members by training them in the sport as well as discipling them in their walks with Christ. Together, they will begin their recruiting efforts with an informational meeting on Aug. 18, the first day of fall semester classes, followed by tryouts from Aug. 18-21, Aug. 25-28, Sept. 1-4, and Sept. 8-11. They will also introduce the sport to newcomers at the Aug. 23 Block Party, when they will set up a hitting net outside of the LaHaye Ice Center with a speed gun to gauge prospective players' serves and strokes.
"The goal is always to recruit as many people onto the team as possible, new players or others who have played before, and teach the basics as well as Danny did," Melton said. "I would like to teach some of my own strategies that I have come across on my own, especially to the senior players, and hopefully they can do better than I did (at nationals)."
Like Rodriguez, who allowed players to formulate their own style after reaching a certain level, Melton will encourage future Flames and Lady Flames to exercise creativity in shot selection while increasing dexterity to out-think opponents
"We'd like to keep the newer players, bring them up to a level by the end of their first year on the team, and give them good strategy that they'll be able to implement into their games," Melton said. "For those who want to take it more seriously, we will try develop them to become even stronger players and keep their love for the game even after they've graduated."
Melton has continued to sharpen his game since graduating, playing singles and doubles regularly at the Downtown Lynchburg YMCA courts. This Thursday through Sunday, Rodriguez and Melton will serve as directors of the Commonwealth Games' racquetball tournament at the LaHaye Recreation & Fitness Center courts, one week before Main Games Weekend is held on Liberty's campus for the 10th summer from July 18-20.
