Person Before Product – Josh Goffi on Building a Culture That Lasts

In college tennis, the pressure to win quickly is greater than ever. Coaches have more opportunities to rebuild their teams with experienced players and pursue immediate results, but South Carolina men’s tennis head coach Josh Goffi believes lasting success starts with something more fundamental: developing the person behind the player.

 

“You’ve got to stay true to what you believe,” Goffi says. “The ethos of college coaching is education through sport. We’re here to educate players. We’re here to give them the tools to be successful in the rest of their life.”

 

That philosophy has guided Goffi since he took over at South Carolina in 2010. His program has produced an NCAA singles champion, multiple All-Americans and a sustained run among the nation’s top teams. But Goffi says the foundation is not rankings or technique. It’s the person.

When evaluating recruits, Goffi looks for high character, competitive tenacity and authenticity. He also studies the environment around the player. “We get to know the family and the coaches very well because they’re the ones that truly, intimately know the recruit,” he says.

 

On court, he wants players who compete with emotion without sacrificing standards. He says, “I love raw, unpolished emotion out on the court, yet competing with high standards and high character.”

 

Once players arrive, South Carolina’s culture revolves around four pillars: growth, resilience, intensity and toughness. Together, Goffi says, those traits create trust, the kind of confidence that does not depend on whether a player is winning that day.

 

“You start building trust in yourself,” he says. “The goal is to have each player build a mindset so they can say, ‘I don’t know how today’s going to go, but I do know that I’m prepared to get through whatever comes my way.’”

That belief was tested in 2024, when injuries hit a roster expected to contend nationally. Rather than lower expectations, Goffi changed the team’s frame. “The standards are the same. The demand is the same. Our job just got tougher that year,” he says.

 

The Gamecocks responded by reaching the SEC Tournament final for the first time in program history and advancing to the NCAA Round of 16. “Champions are the ones that adjust,” Goffi says. “They don’t panic. They reframe and they go and give themselves something else to get.”

Goffi has seen the same mindset transform individual players. NCAA champion Paul Jubb became a model for Daniel Rodrigues, who developed into one of the nation’s top players. Their success made the standard tangible for those who followed.

 

“Environment is 90 percent of it,” Goffi says. “If everybody around you is thinking and acting and walking and talking, responding all the same way, it’s just who you become.”

 

As players mature, upperclassmen become the culture’s “gatekeepers,” holding teammates accountable and reducing the need for coaches to police every detail.

 

For first-year head coaches, Goffi’s advice is therefore simple: build the foundation before chasing the shortcut. “Culture. It’s not recruiting,” he says. “You need to recruit character, and then that character will buy in to the longevity of the program.”

 

In a college sports landscape built for faster movement and faster results, Goffi’s approach is deliberately slower: develop the person, teach the habits, live the values and trust that the tennis will follow.