The University of San Diego has named Brett Masi as its new head men’s tennis coach, it was announced today by Mike Matoso, Senior Associate Director of Athletics. Masi has been with the USC men’s tennis program since 2005, and over the past four years has been Peter Smith’s top assistant. This past Tuesday the USC men’s tennis program won the 2009 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship with a 4-1 win over #3 seed Ohio State. Masi takes over for the late Tom Hagedorn who lost his courageous 18-month battle with Leukemia in late March. He is expected to start in early June.
"We are very excited to hire Brett Masi as our new head men’s tennis coach," said Mike Matoso. "Brett comes from a great background, including experience within the West Coast Conference, and more recently with USC, a perrenial top-10 program that just won the 2009 NCAA team title. We feel very fortunate to have him accept our position and look forward to moving ahead with our tennis program."
Prior to this season, Masi earned back-to-back honors as the ITA West Region Assistant Coach of the Year. He first won the award in 2007 following the Trojans’ run to an 11-0 start and eventual 23-3 overall record with its trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals, and picked up his second accolade in 2008 after another USC run to the NCAA Quarterfinals.
"Winning the national championship as an assistant two days ago, then being named the head coach at USD, in terms of my professional career, I couldn’t ask for a better week," said Brett Masi. "I definitely look forward to the challenge of coming down and being a part of the Torero athletic department, and in bringing what I have learned at USC to the tennis program. With my experience with a national championship team, and now Dean (Jackson) earning All-America honors, that is going to help us with the rest of the team and in moving forward with the tennis program. I just want to thank Mike Matoso and Ky Snyder for giving me this opportunity, and hopefully I can bring what I believe in, both as a coach and a person, and uphold what Tom Hagedorn was building there.
The recently completed 2009 campaign marked his seventh season in collegiate tennis after spending his first two years as an assistant coach to the men’s and women’s programs at Santa Clara University. Masi shared the responsibilities of individual workouts, strength and conditioning, recruiting and summer camp instruction for both the Bronco men’s and women’s teams in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his coaching duties, Masi also served as the Club Sports Coordinator and Bronco Kidz All-Sports Camp Director for the Pat Malley Fitness and Recreation Department in Santa Clara during this time.
Masi was a four-year letterwinner 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 master’s degree from Azusa Pacific in 2002. In addition to coaching, Masi works as an instructor for Peter Smith at The Long Beach Tennis Academy and the Peter Smith Tennis Camps during the summer. He also spends time coaching and developing junior tennis players throughout Southern California.
Masi prepped at Riverside Poly High School, where he was a four-time Ivy League champion in both singles and doubles. Masi was born Nov. 2, 1978 in Riverside, Calif. He and his wife, Desiree, have two young children - a son, Jaxson, and daughter, Devyn.
