Tennis

Jesuit tennis enters a new era in 2025. After 30 years at the helm of the Tigers, during which his teams won 27 District titles and were State runners -up 7 times, Joe Curtis stepped down as head coach.

Succeeding Curtis is Kevin Hughes (pictured), who teaches AP Precalculus at Jesuit and who coached boys tennis at East Bay High in Gibsonton for 8 years, earning Hillsborough County public school Coach of the Year honors 4 times and guiding the team to East Bay's first Region title in 2010

Hughes inherits a now-experienced team that had an up-and-down regular season in 2024 with a youthful lineup before coalescing for the playoffs. The Tigers upset the 2023 State Champion, Wiregrass Ranch, twice within the span of a week to capture the District and the Region titles - Jesuit's 12th Region title in 13 years.

In 2023, the Tigers had a strong regular season before losing  hard-fought battles for both the District and Region to Wiregrass Ranch. The year before, in 2022, the Tigers captured the Region title for the 11th straight time and won their first match at State, defeating Citrus 5-0 in the State Quarterfinal before succumbing in a grueling State Semifinal to Satellite, 4-3. 

2019 was Jesuit's best season of the past two decades. The Tigers advanced all the way to the Class 2A State Championship match, finishing as State runner-up to Miami Gulliver Prep and equaling their best-ever result at State. It was the seventh time Jesuit had finished second in the State, and first time since 2000. Sebastian Solano '20 also finished as the 2A State runner-up in the individual competition in 2019. With most of the team returning in 2020, the Tigers started 8-0 against a rugged schedule and were considered a State title favorite. However, in mid-March the remainder of the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tennis was one of the earliest competitive sports at Jesuit, and in 1950 the Tigers, led by Dave Murphey '50 captured the City and Conference Championship, helping to establish Jesuit as one of the top programs in the region. Among the notable Jesuit tennis alumni are two-time singles State Champion Ryler DeHeart '02, who advanced to the second round of the 2008 U.S. Open before succumbing to Rafael Nadal, and 1998 singles State Champion Andrew Laflin '98.