On Wednesday afternoon, Marist Athletics announced that Gary Sussman will no longer serve as director of tennis via a press release.
Both men’s and women’s tennis recently completed their seasons, with the Marist men falling in the MAAC Tournament semifinals and the women’s team failing to make the postseason after a winless campaign in conference play.
The men’s team finished the spring season with a 4-16 overall record and a 3-3 mark in the MAAC. The Red Foxes finished 3-11 overall in 2021-22.
Sussman joined the tennis program in 2017 when he was hired to coach the women’s team. In 2018, he took over for Tim Smith as director of tennis, which also made him the head coach of the men’s team.
The men’s program has not maintained the dominance it enjoyed under Smith, winning seven league titles in eight years from 2007-08 to 2014-15.
Under Sussman, the men’s program did not make it past the MAAC Tournament semifinals, also appearing in 2019 and 2021 in addition to this season.
In 2018, his first year as the program director, the women’s team made the MAAC final, but it has failed to return since, with the only other trip to the postseason being a semifinal appearance in 2019. The program has just a 7-24 record in the last two seasons.
Even though he will no longer serve as tennis director, Sussman will remain the athletic department’s public address announcer and will also continue to serve as an adjunct professor in the School of Communication and the Arts.
In his professional career, Sussman worked in public relations with the Brooklyn Nets from 1996-2016 and has been the press conference moderator at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships since 2016.
According to the press release, a national search for Sussman’s successor will begin immediately.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Photo from Marist Athletics via Stockton Photo
