Bourgeois earns USPTA Miss. Coach of the year honors

Gary Bourgeois

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College tennis coach Gary Bourgeois is the 2009 United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) Mississippi Coach of the Year. Bourgeois, who’s been tennis coach at Gulf Coast since 2004, was selected for the honor out of a group of the state’s high school and college tennis coaches around the state. According to the USPTA, the honoree “has shown exceptional ability to not only recruit but also to work, shape and motivate those individuals on his team and desires nothing more but to instill the very best into his pupils.”

Since assuming control of the women’s program at Gulf Coast, Bourgeois has taken the team to the NJCAA National Tournament three times, including an MACJC men’s doubles championship in 2005. In 2007 the Gulf Coast women finished third in state and 21st in the nation. The following year the women’s squad finished second in the state and 20th in the nation. Last season Bourgeois was recognized as the MACJC Women’s Coach of the Year. He’s also a touring coach away from the MGCCC tennis programs and has worked as director of the prestigious Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academies in Austria and in California in addition to coaching on the WTA, ATP and ITF world tours.