Brett Masi has been named the eighth head men’s tennis coach in Texas Tech University history, Athletics Director Kirby Hocutt announced on Friday.
“I am excited to welcome Brett Masi into the Texas Tech family and to have him leading our men’s tennis program,” Hocutt said. “Brett has been successful at every stop during his coaching career, his teams continually earn NCAA appearances, win and challenge for conference titles and he graduates his student-athletes. He has been a part of an NCAA Championship team and has experienced tremendous success as a head coach.”
Masi (pronounced May-cee) arrives at Texas Tech after spending the past six years (2009-15) as the head men’s tennis coach at the University of San Diego. He guided the Toreros program to five straight NCAA appearances (2010-15), three West Coast Conference regular season championships (2011, 2014 and 2015), two WCC tournament titles (2014 and 2015) and a 108-48 overall record. His first WCC title in 2011 marked the program’s first league championship in 21 years. A three-time Southwest Region ITA Coach of the Year honoree (2011, 2013 and 2015), Masi also earned WCC Coach of the Year awards in 2011 and 2015. Individually, his student-athletes have achieved both on the court and in the classroom. Since Masi took over the USD men’s tennis program, he has coached two WCC Player of the Year award winners, two WCC Freshman of the Year winners, 24 All-WCC honorees, one ITA Scholar-Athlete, three WCC All-Academic selections and 12 WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll recipients.
“We are excited to welcome Coach Masi and his family to Lubbock and Texas Tech,” Deputy Athletic Director Chad Weiberg said. “We are fortunate at Texas Tech to have outstanding coaches who do a great job of developing and supporting the student-athletes in their respective sports. Coach Masi will be an excellent addition and is a great fit to build on the successes of the men’s tennis program.”
Prior to USD, Masi spent four years (2004-09) as an assistant coach at the University of Southern California under head coach Peter Smith. He helped guide the Trojans to the 2009 national championship with a 4-1 win over No. 3 seeded Ohio State. Masi earned back-to-back honors as the ITA West Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
His first two years of collegiate coaching were spent as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s programs at Santa Clara University (2003-04). During his tenure with the Bronco tennis programs, he shared responsibilities of individual workouts, strength and conditioning, recruiting and summer camp instruction. He has also spent time working at the Peter Smith Tennis Academy (2004-09), Martin Luther King High School in Riverside (2001-02), Cal Poly (2000-01) and IMG Academy-Los Angeles (2000).
A Riverside, Calif. native, Masi was a four-year letterman at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he remains one of the program’s all-time winningest players. He completed his career with a 60-29 singles record, playing among the top three singles positions since his freshman campaign. He earned his highest career singles ranking at No. 38 in 2000 and was named to the All-Big West Conference First Team as a senior. In 2001, he earned his bachelor’s degree in recreation administration from Cal Poly and earned his masters’ degree from Azusa Pacific in 2002.
He inherits a Texas Tech men’s tennis program that concluded its 2015 season with a No. 19 national team ranking, a second consecutive NCAA Championship berth and a 19-9 dual meet record. The Red Raiders return five key players from their 2015 starting lineup. Masi replaces Tim Siegel, who announced his retirement on July 9 following a 23-year tenure.