The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Men's Tennis
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
A former collegiate and professional coach who has been an NCAA team champion and All-American as a player, Brandon Wagner was named Assistant Men’s Tennis Coach at Texas in June 2019 and promoted to Associate Head Coach in September 2021. Wagner has served as an integral part of the Longhorns' success over the past three seasons, during which the team compiled a 55-20 overall record.
This past season, despite the team facing an unprecedented string of injuries that prevented a fully healthy lineup from ever taking the court throughout the year against a daunting schedule, the Longhorns still reached the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 and posted at least 18 wins each for an eighth-consecutive season. All of Texas' 11 losses came to opponents ranked at least in the top 15 with nine of those against teams in the top six, including 4-3 defeat against No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Ohio State. The season also featured wins versus that same Gators team at ITA Indoor Nationals, which Texas reached for the fourth-straight year, and at No. 9 USC. It was then capped by Richard Ciamarra and Cleeve Harper winning the NCAA Doubles National Championship.
In 2021, Texas posted a 24-6 overall mark, win a share of the regular season Big 12 Championship, make an appearance in the NCAA Final Four and finish with an ITA Ranking of No. 3 after being rated as high as No. 2 earlier in the season. Texas also posted wins over three of the four teams that at one point had been ranked No. 1 during the season, including eventual National Champion Florida, eventual runner-up Baylor and two wins over USC, which was No. 1 in the first meeting at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
Despite a shortened 2020 season, Wagner helped lead the Longhorns to impressive moments, including opening the regular season with a road win at No. 1 Florida despite having three freshmen each in the singles and doubles lineups. Following that match, Texas reached No. 1 in the ITA Rankings for the third in program history. The Longhorns also posted two wins over No. 8 Stanford in 2020 with one coming at the ITA Indoors and the other less than two weeks later in Austin.
During his coaching career, Wagner has served as an ATP/WTA Tour coach, an associate head coach at the University of South Florida and a volunteer assistant at the University of Georgia. As a player, he earned All-American honors at Georgia in 2002 and was a member of the Bulldogs’ 2001 National Championship team.
Having recently been a professional circuit touring coach, Wagner developed American superstar John Isner, helping him climb nearly 100 spots into the top 80 of the ATP rankings for the first time in his career. He also coached WTA top-40 players Olga Govortsova, Ajla Tomljanovic and Melanie Oudin. In addition, Wagner groomed several junior players who reached the top five of the USTA national rankings.
Wagner was associate head coach at South Florida from 2012-15 where he helped guide the Bulls to back-to-back American Athletic Conference championships, as well as consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2014 and 2015.
In 2015, USF reached the NCAA tournament round of 16 for the first time in school history and finished ranked No. 16, its highest final ranking in program history, and the highest in the state of Florida that year. During the 2014 season, the Bulls climbed from No. 74 to No. 23 in the rankings, and Wagner was named Southeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
As a player at Georgia, Wagner helped lead his team to the NCAA Championship finals in two-straight years in 2001 and 2002, including the 2001 National Championship. He advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2002 NCAA singles tournament en route to his All-America honors. He also posted a career-high collegiate singles ranking of No. 6 that year.
Following college, Wagner played professionally for a short time, ranking as high as No. 441 and winning two tournament titles, while training with notable players such as Andy Roddick, James Blake, Mardy Fish, and Bob and Mike Bryan.
Wagner returned to Georgia as a volunteer assistant coach from 2003-04 after earning his bachelor’s degree from there in speech communication. He was also a member of the Dean’s Honor Roll at UGA.
Wagner and his wife, Karyna, have two children – a son, Braven, and a daughter, Brielle, who are 6-year-old twins.
