Background
Brandi was born in Puerto Rico.
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Andy Brandi
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He attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where he played for the Trinity Tigers men"s tennis team in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I competition. Brandi graduated from Trinity University with a bachelor"s degree in business administration in 1975.
Career
Brandi was formerly the head coach of the Florida Gators women"s tennis team of the University of Florida. He is best known for coaching the Lady Gators tennis team to three National Collegiate Athletic Association (National Collegiate Athletic Association) national tournament championships in the 1990s. In his early 20s, Brandi trained with the legendary Harry Hopman.
Brandi was a touring pro for several years after graduating from college, but quickly discovered his true calling was refining the technique and improving the play of other up-and-coming professional tennis players.
Notably, he coached Kathy Rinaldi and Carling Bassett when they were rising talents. Brandi was also the executive director of Image Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
Brandi became the head coach of the Florida Gators women"s tennis team at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida in August 1984. In one unique career moment, two of Brandi"s Lady Gators, Shaun Stafford and Halle Cioffi, played against each other in the individual National Collegiate Athletic Association singles championship final in 1988.
At the time of his resignation from the Gators coaching staff, he had the highest winning percentage (915) of any coach in National Collegiate Athletic Association tennis history, and had the fifth highest number of career victories (460) among all National Collegiate Athletic Association tennis coaches, active and retired.
After leaving the University of Florida, Brandi has worked for Image Academy, the Chris Everett Tennis Academy, and the Harold Solomon Tennis Institute.
Achievements
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His teams won three National Collegiate Athletic Association national tournament championships (1992, 1996, 1998), and were the runners-up in five other National Collegiate Athletic Association tournaments (1988, 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999), having reached the National Collegiate Athletic Association finals eight of his seventeen seasons. Brandi"s Lady Gators also won six National Indoor Tennis Championships and fourteen Southeastern Conference (Securities and Exchange Commission) championships, and never finished lower than second in the Securities and Exchange Commission regular season standings. Gators Lisa Raymond (1992, 1993) and Jill Craybas (1996) also won individual National Collegiate Athletic Association singles championships during Brandi"s tenure. In National Collegiate Athletic Association doubles championship play, three Brandi-coached doubles teams won four National Collegiate Athletic Association doubles championships: Jillian Alexander and Nicole Arendt in 1991. Dawn Buth and Stephanie Nickitas in 1996 and 1997. And Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnhoff in 2001. He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "honorary letter winner" in 2006.
Membership
Currently, he is a member of the player development staff and a national coach at the United States Tennis Association.
