JT Sundling enters his third season as head men's tennis coach at the University of San Francisco in 2023-24. After spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach, former Director of Athletics Joan McDermott promoted Sundling, who succeeded Pablo Pires de Almeida.
Sundling originally joined the staff in 2018-19. He began his journey at USF as a volunteer assistant before serving as an assistant coach as well as interim head coach in the 2019-20 season. Under Sundling's watch, the Dons finished the 2019-20 season with a third-place finish at the Pacific Valley Tennis Championships, which included wins over Hawaii and Gonzaga.
The Dons 2022-23 season saw Hoffman awarded with All-WCC honors and Giraldez named to the WCC All-Academic First Team.
During 2021-22 season with Sundling at the reigns the Dons boasted an 11-13 overall record. Following an impressive 2022 spring season that saw the program ranked for the first time in seven years, the Dons had an appearance in the WCC Championships in Southern California. This marks the first conference championships for the Dons since the 2016-17 season. Following the impressive season, two Dons were selected as All-WCC recipients.
In the classroom, the Dons were just as successful. USF finished the 2019-2020 academic year with a team grade point average of 3.58 – seven members of the team finished with a 3.5 or higher. Notably,
Johan Garpered,
Paul Giraud,
Phuc Huynh,
Nitzan Ricklis, and
David Woodland all earned scholar-athlete honors. Huynh, Ricklis, and Woodland also all took home ITA Scholar-Athlete honors in 2019-20 as well.
Prior to his arrival on the Hilltop, Sundling worked at the California Tennis Club as a teaching professional where he specialized in working with high performance juniors. In 2017, he helped captain the 2017 U-14 team to win NorCal's first ever National Championship.
Sundling's college career began at the University of Southern California, where he was a two-time NCAA team champion as well as a two-time All-NCAA first team selection. Impressively, Sundling won the doubles title at the Battle in the Bay in 2010. That year, he received the Scholar Athlete Award of Honor as well as being selected to the PAC-10 All-Academic Honor Roll. Shorthly thereafter, he then transferred to Texas Christian University where he was the captain of the tennis team.
A native of Thousand Oaks, Calif., Sundling attended Westlake High School where, as a junior, he was named the 2006 Southern California Player of the Year. He claimed boy's 16s and 18s National Hard Court Championships in Kalamazoo with partner Daniel Nguyen, giving him entrance into the Men's 2009 U.S. Open doubles main draw. Sundling is the winner of 8 gold balls throughout his junior career and was ranked in the top five nationally in 14s, 16s and 18s. He was a member of the 2007 United States Junior Davis cup team and was a recipient of the Evelyn Houseman Lifetime Sportsmanship Award.
