Andy Brandi‘s accent and welcoming smile are as distinct as his coaching record. The Puerto Rico native compiled a 460-43 overall record in 17 seasons as the head women’s tennis coach at the University of Florida, but the journey to Florida and now LSU began when he was just 14.
“I grew up in Puerto Rico and there is a limited amount of tennis in Puerto Rico if you want to pursue tennis on a larger scale, so when I was 14, I told my parents I wanted to go away for school,” Brandi said. “There was a gentleman that was a good friend of my family that lived in Dallas, who suggested a school that another Puerto Rican friend had attended before me.”
Brandi pursued a tennis career after college, but realized in order to make money, he would need to start teaching more instead of playing in tournaments.
“I did not do very well as a player,” he recalled. “I had to teach in order to make money to go play tennis because I could not make enough money when I played to sustain it. It got to a point where my wife and I were in Europe and I played two tournaments in Spain and after my second tournament, we were supposed to go on from there and I told my wife I wanted to come back to the states. We came back and I called the gentleman I used to train with and he asked me if I wanted to come work for him and that is where I started teaching tennis full-time.”
A few years later, Brandi took over as the women’s tennis coach at Florida, where he was wildly successful. In 17 seasons, he led the Gators to three NCAA titles, five NCAA runner-up finishes, four singles national champions, four doubles national champions, 14 SEC titles, three undefeated seasons and an unprecedented winning percentage of 91.5. In addition, every freshman coached by Brandi for four years earned All-SEC honors, played for a national title and was part of at least three SEC championship teams.
“It was a pretty good experience,” Brandi said with a smile. “You are only as good as who you have. You can have the best coach in the world, but if you do not have good players, there is a certain ceiling you cannot go past and I was very lucky people wanted to come to school there because they wanted to pursue a professional career in tennis.”
Following his departure from Florida, he worked for the IMG Academy, Chris Everett Tennis Academy, Harold Solomon Tennis Institute and player development with the United States Tennis Association. However, his next challenge is bringing LSU men’s tennis back to national prominence with the help of his son, Chris.
“It has been challenging, in the first year we were here, we lost almost half of the matches I lost in 17 years,” Brandi said. “It is a process of building the talent, it is a process of developing the culture and the character of players the way you want it. It takes time, I think in five years we can be where this program was at one point. It is very difficult going through the steps because I am not a very patient person to begin with, so I wanted to be there yesterday. I think five years is a good goal to be where both Brandis want to be.”
One of Andy’s initial changes to the program did not even involve tennis. He noticed the national anthem was not being played at dual matches and he eventually got the anthem to be played before each dual match.
“I think it is important, it is something that is a tradition in all sports here in the United States and I just found it kind of interesting that we did not play the national anthem at our dual matches,” he said. “I just got to a point where I said ‘This is not right,’ and I insisted we started doing that because it is part of sports and it is part of what the American culture is all about.”
Since coming to LSU, Brandi has had to opportunity to work closely with women’s tennis coach Julia Sell, who happens to be one of Brandi’s former players from Florida.
“It is interesting for me at my age because there are a lot of people you coach at some point in your life that now are in the coaching business and being very successful coaches,” he said. “For me, it is fun to see Julia coaching because I always liked Julia, I always felt very comfortable in the relationship I had with Julia as a player and now as a fellow coach.”
In addition, Andy’s son, Chris serves as the co-head coach for men’s tennis alongside his father.
“It has been a pain in the [butt],” Andy said while laughing. “I think you cannot ask for more than to be here with part of your family. “I think it has been good for both of us because sometimes he tells me things I do now want to hear and sometimes I tell him things he does not want to hear. I am learning from him and he is learning from me, so you cannot ask for more than that.”
Even after a career of amazing accomplishments and relationships, it was nearly impossible for Brandi to name one of his favorites. The question alone elicited a huge smile and a pause to reflect over his numerous career achievements.
“There are a lot of them, is there one that stands out?” he said in a softened Puerto Rico accent. “There are so many, it would be unfair. You are dealing with Olympic gold medalists, grand slam champions, NCAA champions and junior national and international champions. I think they are all in my memory and I feel very privileged to have been a part of that success.”