Page 102 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2015

SPORTS & OUTDOORS rising to the top
TENNIS
story and photos by Jody O’Hara
Gary Bourgeois, MGCCC Tennis Coach
Gary Bourgeois
named Region Coach of the Year
Austria and Santa Barbara, Calif., and worked at the academy in Bradenton, Fla.
In the early 1990s, the pull of home prevailed and the former Southern Miss. quarterback came back to South Mississippi and took over the City of Biloxi public program based at Hiller Park. That program was recognized as the best public program in the Southern Section by the United States Tennis Association.
In 2004, Charles Sepenta decided
to retire as the head tennis coach at MGCCC and recommended Bourgeois as his replacement. The new coach took over a program based out of
the Jefferson Davis campus which practiced and played at the City of Biloxi public facilities. “Basically, I was recruiting off my resume,” Bourgeois
Winning isn’t accidental. Using that philosophy as a base and adding
basic fundamentals and a color-coded attack chart, Gary Bourgeois has molded his players and his Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College program into a nationally recognized junior college tennis power.
Leading up to being named Wilson/ ITA Region III Coach of the Year, Bourgeois was awarded five different Coach of the Year awards within three years and coached two undefeated men’s teams.
The head tennis coach of the Bulldogs for the past 12 years, Bourgeois is a Gulfport native who has traveled the globe and met and worked with some
of the biggest names in the sport. “I left Gulfport in 1976 and coached around the world,” he said. That included stops at the New Orleans Hilton, the MGM Grand and the Cambridge Racquet Club in Las Vegas. Eventually, he landed in Italy and
held coaching positions in Lagarda and Malcesine before becoming the Director of Tennis for the United States Department of Defense in Europe, based in Garmisch, Germany.
His name became recognized
and, eventually, he was invited to join the staff of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. For the uninitiated, Bollettieri’s IMG Academy alumni include Serena and Venus Williams, Monica Seles, Andre Agassi and Maria Sharapova. Bourgeois directed Bollettieri satellite academies in
102 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • November 2015 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net