Southern Miss Athletic Director Bill McGillis recently named Zubin Engineer as the 9th head coach of the men’s tennis team.
Engineer brings more than 20 years of coaching experience to USM. He has trained multiple national teams, coached three Davis Cup teams and traveled exclusively with elite players to four different continents.
“He has been successful everywhere he has worked and we look forward to having his expertise lead our men’s tennis program,” McGillis said.
Engineer first got a taste of coaching collegiately when he began coaching men and women’s tennis at Loyola University New Orleans in 2009. He was the driving force in encouraging the university to field both men and women’s tennis for the first time since 1997.
In 2011, the Loyola men’s tennis team received the NAIA 5 Star Team Champions of Character Award out of 258 teams and nine of his student-athletes maintained a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Other student athletes have received individual honors such as the NAIA Daktronics Scholar-Athlete Award and SSAC individual Champions of Character Awards under Engineer.
“My mission is to build an exemplary program at USM by recruiting high-caliber student-athletes who will excel both in academics and athletics,” Engineer said. “ I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, fans and alumni here at the university.”
Before coaching on the collegiate level, Engineer coached in India with Britannia Amritraj Tennis in 1991. It was there that he began his coaching career, working with a program that produced a Junior Wimbledon and Junior U.S. Open champion, multiple Davis Cup players and Indian National Champions.
Beyond coaching with Britannia Amritraj Tennis, Engineer held several administrative and coaching positions with elite clubs and academies in India, Thailand and Malaysia.
In 1998, he played a significant role in preparing the Thailand team for the Asian Games and South East Asian Games. With his assistance, the team won the first-ever Asian Games gold medal, four South East Asian gold medals and one of the team members from the Asian Games went on to achieve the status of Asia’s highest-ranked tennis player in history.
In 2003, Engineer co-founded the Tennis Academy of Asia in Thailand, Asia’s largest international tennis academy. He served as both a coach and director until 2008.
USM will begin their season in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Jan. 18 against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
