A new face will be seen throughout the FGCU Athletics as they signed Josh Molino as the new men’s tennis head coach. After a mid-season vacancy of the position, it left the Eagles stranded at the bottom of the conference standings, Molino looks to bring success back to the green and blue.
Molino joins the Eagles with a decade of coaching experience. His coaching journey started in 2011 at Detroit Country Day High School in Beverly Hills, Michigan. He coached the boys’ tennis team for three years, eventually leaving to coach junior tennis at different clubs nationwide. He started in 2011 at the Sports Club of West Bloomfield and ended at the Country Club of Orlando in 2017.
After six years as a junior tennis coach, Molino moved to the collegiate level with the Kansas Wesleyan University Coyotes in Salina, Kansas, to be their men’s tennis head coach in 2018. He saw the most success with the Coyotes, which earned him awards over a five-year span. The most notable awards are the 2022 Wilson ITA NAIA Central Region Men’s Coach of the Year and the 2022 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Coach of the Year.
These achievements led Molino to the University of Tulsa where he was named the assistant head coach for the men’s tennis program. During that time, he helped lead the Golden Hurricanes to the No.1 seed of the NIT Tournament, achieving multiple ranked wins en route to the championship. Through these accomplishments, two players were elected to first-team ACC selection, and Pierce Rollins was sent to the NCAA Tournament as a singles qualifier.
“Tulsa is a traditional brand in collegiate tennis, but so is Florida Gulf Coast Conference Champions,” Molino said. “[Former FGCU Men’s Tennis Head Coach] CJ [Webber] has built up such a great program here, and conference championships are kind of the standard. So we’re going to continue recruiting good people and developing these guys on and off the court.”
Molino comes to Southwest Florida intending to translate his success with the University of Tulsa to FGCU. The Eagles enter the 2024-25 season with a chip on their shoulder. A mid-season coaching change and an inexperienced roster saw the 2023 ASUN Conference Champions towards the bottom of the standings last season.
“There’s definitely going to be more pressure,” sophomore Pablo Paternostro said. “Last year it felt like we were the youngest team in the country. And this year, with the new guys coming in and everyone else getting a year older, we’re experienced.”
FGCU’s roster will not see many changes heading into this upcoming season. Most of the roster will be sophomores, with transfers and incoming freshmen yet to be announced.
“We’ve got a young team, so we want to build these guys up,” Molino said. “We’ve got a couple of years with this group to make them the best versions of themselves.”
The Eagles will play numerous non-conference games and tournaments before entering ASUN Conference play in the spring. While their official schedule has yet to be announced, the men’s tennis team is ready to rebound with a new leader at the helm.
“It’s just an exciting time,” Molino said. “It’s a lot of work, a lot of traveling and a lot of grind. I’m just incredibly blessed and happy for the opportunity that FGCU gave me, and now I got to run with it.”
