WEST POINT — Life has yet to slow down for Chris Hooshyar since he was announced June 12 as Mississippi State’s new women’s tennis coach.
He started full-time Monday, and has since spent the better part of the week meeting figures in MSU’s athletic department and sampling the local cuisine.
“It is a foodie town,” Hooshyar told The Dispatch during Tuesday’s Hail State Happy Hours event at Anthony’s in West Point. “There hasn’t been a bad place I’ve been to so far. I might be in a bit of trouble until my wife gets here. Nobody is watching what I am eating.”
Hooshyar’s wife, Meagan and two daughters, Charlotte and Halton, haven’t moved just yet, planning to join him next year. Hooshyar isn’t long for Starkville himself, planning to leave Saturday for a month-long recruiting trip in Europe.
Such is the life of a college tennis coach beginning a new job he never really expected to take.
Hooshyar, an England native, spent the last eight-plus years in the Southeastern Conference on The Plains at Auburn.
He became Auburn’s assistant women’s tennis coach in 2014, then head coach in 2016. He switched over to the men’s side in 2019 as an assistant before becoming the head coach again in 2022. Now, he will return to the women’s side with MSU this year.
“I’ve always said I loved Auburn,” Hooshyar said. “Great people there, also. A great place. It was going to take somewhere incredibly special to pull me and my family out of there, and when I came here I found it.”
What Hooshyar found in Starkville was not only a town of helpful and accommodating people, but a tennis program needing a new voice.
Hooshyar took over for Daryl Greenan, whose 157 victories made him the winningest coach in program history, after he resigned in early May. Under Greenan’s watch, the Bulldogs qualified for five NCAA Tournaments, most recently in 2021.
Hooshyar felt the opportunity to improve was there. It’s one of the reasons why he switched back to the women’s side of college tennis. Another is because of his daughters, making sure they had role models in the sport to look up to.
Having made that transition before, Hooshyar doesn’t see there being any adjustments moving from men’s to women’s tennis.
“It is coaching people,” he said. “No two people are the same. It is understanding and learning each individual and what will help and support their needs. People are people, and that is what we do.”
Over recent days, Hooshyar has also spent time reaching out to his new players.
The Bulldogs lose their No. 1,2 and 5 single players from last year’s team in Emmanouela Antonaki and Gia Cohen, who graduated, and Emily Surcey, who transferred to Samford. Alexandra Mikhailuk, a graduate player from Canada, will be one of the team leaders this season.
Hooshyar said building those relationships has got him “fired up” to get things going on the court.
Though he doesn’t know how far his team’s talents can take the program in year No. 1, Hooshyar believes there is enough to make an immediate impact.
“The ceiling isn’t going to be determined off wins and losses,” Hooshyar said. “The ceiling is going to be getting (the players) to their best level. I’m not going to put a number on it, but it is whatever their best is. We are going to plant the seeds for a tree that you will never get the shade under. It is working for tomorrow by working so hard in the present.
“It’s going to take time, but we are going to build it the right way.”
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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