Tony Minnis comes from a family of tennis tradition. It is in his blood.
His father, Howard, was the head tennis coach at Southern University. His brother Patrick played in the No. 1 singles position following Tony’s graduation from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. His sister Patricia was a four-year letter winner at LSU from 1988-91.
“[My father] actually started me in tennis when I was about eight or nine-years-old and taught me how to play and was actually a huge influence on me,” Minnis said. “Tennis was a good sport for me because I was so small. At the time I was really short and tiny. Then I kind of evolved and grew a lot as I got older.”
As Minnis grew he earned the role of captain for the USL men’s tennis team in his freshman season. He earned first team All-Louisiana honors his freshman year. When his playing days were finished at USL, Minnis was the all-time winningest singles player in school history with 94 career victories.
Finishing college, Minnis contributed his playing experience as a major factor in his decision to become a coach.
“The experience I had at USL was awesome,” he said. “It was just such an enjoyable experience that I knew deep down that if I ever got the opportunity that [coaching is] something that I would definitely like to do. So after college I assisted there and put my name out and was fortunate enough to get the opportunity.”
As the head coach of the LSU women’s tennis team, Minnis continues to achieve honors. He is the all-time winningest coach in LSU women’s tennis history, earning more than 160 victories in 12 seasons. He has been named the Louisiana Coach of the Year three times (1995, ’97, ’99), Southwestern Regional Coach of the Year (1995 and ’99) and Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year (1997).
Minnis said the success of the team reflects the success he enjoys as a coach.
“We’ve made the NCAA tournament eight consecutive years,” Minnis said. “We’ve been the first team in LSU history to make the Sweet 16 — we’ve done it twice. We’ve had four All-Americans. We’ve been amongst the top 28 in the nation over seven consecutive years, which isn’t easy to do.”
As coach of this year’s team, Minnis enjoys his success but said he always expects to do better.
“This year I kind of feel like the girls have a great attitude and work really hard and really compete well,” Minnis said. “I’m excited. It’s a lot of fun, but we’re just going to have to grow and learn how to compete and do what we have to do.”