Larry Mousouris

“My calling has been coaching and developing young individuals.”

Larry Mousouris has done remarkably well in those areas during his long career coaching at the Santa Barbara Tennis Club.

His list of pupils is quite impressive. It includes Allison Hardey, who led Santa Barbara High to four CIF titles, won a NCAA team championship at Stanford and was recently inducted into the SBHS Hall of Fame; Harvard Hall of Fame inductee and Dos Pueblos alum Kathy Vigna, the first player to earn All-Ivy League honors all four years at Harvard; Round Table Hall of Famers and Channel League singles champions Amelia White (SBHS), Kara Warkentin (San Marcos) and Lola Trenwith (SBHS). On the boys’ side, there’s NCAA Division 1 All-Americans like Mark Wooldridge, Alex Nizet and Chase Melton; nationally ranked boys like Spencer Simon and Heath Montgomery. There’s Mike Falberg, a two-time CIF singles champion at Santa Barbara High, an NCAA team champion at Stanford and the1980 U.S. Open junior champion; 1985 U.S. Open Junior Champion and No. 3 world-ranked Tim Trigueiro, a four-time Channel League champion for Santa Barbara High.

Most recently, he’s helped develop teenager Kayla Day. She won the 2016 U.S. Open Junior title and was ranked the No. 1 junior by the International Tennis Federation before turning professional. She’s playing on the women’s world tour.

Tennis always been a huge part of Mousouris’ life. He was the No. 1 singles player for a Channel League-champion San Marcos team back in the mid-1960s. He played collegiately at SBCC and Cal Poly and earned honors at both schools. He was the SBCC team MVP and the Round Table College Tennis Player of the Year in 1968. At Cal Poly, he was team captain and MVP of the second-ranked Mustangs team in Division 2. He won the CCAA singles and doubles championships in 1970, reached the Division 2 singles quarterfinals and doubles final and earned All-American honors.

He said leading Cal Poly to its first conference title in 25 years and a second-place place in NCAA D2 is one of his greatest moments as a player.

Mousouris played professional tennis for a short time, specifically as a doubles partner with Bob Hochstader and Jim Slaught.

He became a teaching pro and the tennis director at the Santa Barbara Tennis Club in 1972. He coached at SBCC in 1988-89 and was named the Western State Conference Coach of the Year in ’88.

He’s been a staunch supporter for tennis in the community, raising funds for the men’s and women’s programs at UCSB, City College and Santa Barbara High, in addition to the Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons, a grassroots organization that promotes junior tennis throughout our area. He is currently serving on the Tennis Patrons Board.