Jeff Brandes was formally introduced as Temple’s new Director of Tennis Wednesday morning in The Liacouras Center. The conference was attended by Athletic Director Arthur Johnson and several fellow Temple coaches.
Brandes joins Temple after serving as the men’s and women’s head tennis coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University since 2016. Brandes has collected multiple coaching awards, including earning the Landmark Conference Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2011 while at Drew University.
“This is awesome. Thank you to everybody, I have never felt more welcomed,” Brandes said at the press conference. “On the Zoom call for the first interview, I felt welcomed. On the campus visit day, I felt welcomed. Even though I got lost on campus I still felt like I’ve been here forever because everyone is so welcoming. It’s amazing. I’m so happy to be an Owl.”
Brandes will be tasked with taking the place of Steve Mauro, who announced he would not be returning to Temple on June 5. The longtime head coach oversaw the men’s tennis team for 19 seasons and the women’s tennis teams for 16 seasons. Mauro left Temple as the program’s all-time winningest tennis coach.
Brandes will be the first beneficiary of the new tennis courts being built next to Geasey Field, which are expected to be completed by the end of September.
“We are excited to have Coach Brandes join our team to lead and develop our tennis student-athletes,” Johnson wrote in a statement when Brandes was hired on Aug. 7. “His passion for tennis and his commitment to excellence on and off the court have been evident over his impressive coaching career. I want to thank our student-athletes through this process and the committee for bringing us great candidates to consider.”
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