Ciasuilli enters his final season as Costa’s tennis head coach

By Tess Heagy

Staff Writer

Mira Costa’s boys and girls tennis head coach, Joe Ciasulli, served up news, announcing his retirement from coaching theCosta tennis team.

Costa’s long-time tennis coach Joe Ciasulli announced he will be retiring from coaching boys and girls tennis after 15 seasons. He announced that he will make this girls fall season his last.

“This was a very difficult decision for me, which I agonized over for a long time.” Ciasulli said. “I’m going to miss coach- ing very much, and I’m going to especially miss being with the players on a daily basis.”

Ciasulli first announced his retirement at the 2019 season banquet, held at the Manhattan Beach Country Club. After facing some health issues during the 2019 season, Ciasulli decided it was time for him to retire. He realized he could put more time into focusing on other things in his life besides his coaching, Ciasulli said.

“Last year I had some health is- sues,” Ciasulli said. “I think that made me realize that there are other things I want to do with my life but couldn’t because of the demands of coaching. Unfortunately, because of certain changes at Costa, those time demands keep expanding each year.”

Ciasulli notified the school of his plans of retirement and will be finalizing the process after the girls fall season is over. In the meantime, Cisasulli hopes to treat this season like every other sea- son. The girls team has already won the Golden State Classic, placed 3rd at the Point Loma In- vitational, and is undefeated for the first 13 matches of the year.

“I’m trying not to look at this as my last year of coaching because I’m trying not to make it about me,” Ciasulli said.“This is just another season, and like every season, I just want us to do as well as we can.”

Ciasulli coached the girls team to a CIF Division One Champion- ship in 2018 and led the boys team to a CIF Open Division Semifinal finish in 2019. His goal was to improve the team’s skills and the culture of the team as well.

“The first thing I had to do was change the culture, make it more of a competitive sport rather than a recreational activity,” Ciasulli said. “I added more conditioning and strength training and more structure to the practices. Then I had to convince players that it was a rewarding experience to play on the high school tennis team.”

One of Ciasulli’s hardest obstacles to overcome was getting the more advanced tennis players to play on the high school team. According to Ciasulli, by making the team more competitive, he was able to attract more athletes.

“For the really good players, high school tennis is not the path for playing at the next level,” Cia- sulli said. “College coaches look almost exclusively at a player’s Universal Tennis Rating, which they get from playing in tournaments outside of school.”

Even though tennis is an individually scored sport, another one of Ciasulli’s goals was that he wanted the players to play for a team. He strived for his team to no longer be average, but to be one of the better high school teams in the nation, said Ciasulli.

“I’m very proud of my coaching tenure,” Ciasulli said. “When I took over the program, the teams were good but not in the same league as the elite teams. I wasn’t satisfied with being average.”

Despite all of the victories the Mira Costa tennis program has been awarded throughout the years, he says that he was not focused on the teams’ statistics and personal wins, but rather on the bonds and memories he made with the players.

“What stands out to me the most are the relationships I have made with my players,” Ciasulli said. “[The players] who have gone onto tennis success after high school, but especially others whose high school tennis was the pinnacle of their tennis careers. I hope I have given them some- thing to remember fondly.”

Even though Ciasulli will be leaving the tennis program, he will still continue to be a part of the Mustang family. He has been working as a substitute teacher at Mira Costa for many years and plans on continuing to work as a substitute. Administration hired Ciasulli’s current assistant, Mark McGuire, to be the boys’ tennis coach for the upcoming season. Administration has yet to find a coach for the girls tennis team, according to Ciasulli.

“My memory of Coach Joe that stands out was when he would watch the drills as we practiced or watch our matches and give out a few pointers.” junior Milla Solnicki said. “[He] was very hard on us as a team, but I know that he was pushing us to perform at our very best, and I will miss that.”