Juuso Laitinen

Biography

Juuso Laitinen is in his third year as a volunteer coach for the Owls. The native of Kuopio, Finland originally came to the Gulf Coast in 2012 to play tennis for Lamar University where he was a five-time All-Southland Conference selection while leading the Cardinals to back-to-back conference titles for the first time in over 40 years. He was a member of the Cardinals’ 68th-ranked squad that defeated the 28th-ranked Owls, 4-1 in Beaumont in 2016. He graduated from Lamar with a degree in Exercise Science & Fitness Management in 2015 while competing for the Cardinals. Laitinen began his coaching career after completing work on his Master’s in Kinesiology from Lamar in 2017, coaching at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland until returning to South Texas as a coach at the Giammalva Elite Tennis Academy in September of 2020. He holds certifications as a strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS), functional strength coach (CFSC) and from the USTA High Performance Coaching Program (HPCP).