Howard Joffe (born October 24, 1971) is a South African

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

coach and former professional player.

Playing career

Born and raised in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, Joffe ranked as high as second nationally as a junior. He was a singles gold medalist at the

1989 Maccabiah Games The 13th Maccabiah Games brought 4,500 athletes to Israel from 45 nations. Jewish athletes from Hungary participated for the first time since World War II, Jewish athletes from Russia had been permitted, by their country, to play for the first ti ...

in Israel, defeating Israel's

Shahar Perkiss Shahar Perkiss (born 14 October 1962) is an Israeli right-handed former professional tennis player. He reached his best singles ranking of world # 53 in March 1985. He peaked at world # 54 in the doubles rankings in November 1985. Perkiss won th ...

, 6-4, 6-4, and a silver medalist in men's doubles. From 1990 to 1992 he played collegiate tennis for

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and t ...

, earning All-American honors his final year after making the NCAA semi-finals. In 1995 he qualified for his only

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...

career main draw at the South African Open and won his first round match over

David Nainkin David Nainkin (born 20 September 1970) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa. Career Nainkin never reached a final on the ATP Tour but made it into the semi finals of the 1995 Nokia Open in Beijing, before losing to Michael C ...

, before losing in the next round to

Jörn Renzenbrink Jörn Renzenbrink (born 17 July 1972) is a retired professional tennis player from Germany. Career A right hander, Renzenbrink had his best Grand Slam performance in the 1994 US Open, when he made it into the fourth round. He started his campai ...

. He had a best singles ranking of 428 in the world.

Tennis coach

Joffe has been a collegiate women's head coach since 2008, starting with two seasons at

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...

. He next coached the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

(2010-11) and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

(2012-15). His time with Texas A&M included a runner-up finish in the 2013 NCAA championships. In 2016 he became head coach of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and he was named Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year in 2018. He coached Texas to back to back Big 12 regular-season championships in 2018 and 2019, then in 2021 guided the Longhorns to the NCAA championship title.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Joffe, Howard 1971 births Living people South African male tennis players South African tennis coaches Maccabiah Games gold medalists for South Africa Maccabiah Games silver medalists for South Africa Maccabiah Games medalists in tennis Competitors at the 1989 Maccabiah Games Pepperdine Waves men's tennis players Texas Longhorns women's tennis coaches Texas A&M Aggies coaches Maryland Terrapins coaches Tennis players from Johannesburg Jewish tennis players