Sharing the Collegiate Journey With the Next Generation

More than a decade ago, a kid from Syosset made a decision that would change the course of two men’s lives forever.

Mike Kossoff was a standout tennis player at Syosset High School and a highly-touted recruit in his senior season on Long Island. As a 24-year-old first-year head coach at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Jay Harris found a recruiting video of Kossoff and was immediately impressed with what he saw.

“The first day I walked into my Bowling Green office there was a VHS tape in the VCR, and it was this little kid from Syosset,” said Harris. “I quickly said to myself, ‘Wow, this guy has interesting energy compared to people in the Midwest,’ and I began to recruit him immediately. But he ended up saying no to me!”

Kossoff would decide to go to San Diego State, but after just a year, he started to look elsewhere.

“He spent a year at San Diego State and then called me one April morning and said ‘Coach, I want to come to Bowling Green,’” recalls Harris.

The two would bring the Bowling Green tennis program to heights it had never seen. The Falcons were ranked as high as 55th in the country and won two Mid-American Conference (MAC) titles, including one in Kossoff’s senior year, when he was the team captain and MVP.

And while the program itself wouldn’t last (it would be cut after Mike’s senior season due to Title IX issues), the relationship between Harris and Kossoff would.

Harris would go on to coach at Brown University, where he became the most successful coach in the 100-year history of the program leading them to the NCAA Tournament in seven of his eight years, a national ranking of 33rd, and two Ivy League titles. Kossoff returned home to Long Island and began working at Sportime, where he is now director of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy on Long Island. Maintaining the bond they had formed together at the college, Kossoff became the recruiter, helping Harris to find and recruit talent to Brown.

“He helped me recruit kids from all across the country … not just from New York but nationwide because of kids he knew from tournaments,” said Harris. “So that is when the relationship kind of went to another level.”

Harris spent eight years as the Brown head coach before moving on in an attempt to launch his own business.

“The last couple of years I was there, things changed in the University’s Athletics Department. I wasn’t enjoying the coaching there nearly as much as I had before,” recalls Harris. “Mike and I were really close, and we started having some conversations about me moving here to New York. So he sort of became the recruiter. Essentially after my last year, I left Brown looking to start my own business in sports psychology consulting and college search consulting. I ended up coming down to Sportime to build those services into the company. That’s how I ended up at Sportime.”

This time around, it was Harris who was coming to an unfamiliar area. The mid-Western guy was heading east to the big city, and Kossoff was here to help him get acclimated.

“Mike was very experienced in this world and everything was new for me,” said Harris. “So he started mentoring me. And we were really able to work and coach together. We oversaw players and programs and the relationship really grew into one of peers.”

Harris brought his knowledge of the college recruiting and college coaching processes to the Sportime clubs, and has been a key fixture of them since. He now serves as the general manager of Sportime Roslyn and is one of the directors of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy.

Now, paired up with Kossoff, the two are heading the College Advisory Service at Sportime. The program will assist and advise kids through the college search and recruiting processes, endeavors that can often become extremely stressful and nerve-racking for kids and parents.

The two bring their own respective experiences to the table, which makes them an ideal duo to be heading up a committee on college recruiting.

“College coaches are always contacting us to get our opinions on various players. We are obviously deeply involved in Eastern tennis so keeping a rapport with those coaches and players is important for us to understand the details of the college search process,” said Kossoff. “Parents, as well as juniors, don’t really know how the process works, and a lot of the time they use outside consultation. We know the kids personally and how they really play, so it just makes sense that we provide that service here.”

Harris and Kossoff know how valuable the college search is. It isn’t just about choosing the right school to launch a professional tennis career, but it is the bridge to whatever career path one chooses to go down.

“Being a part of a college athletic team, whether it be tennis or any sport, is one of the greatest experiences you can have,” said Harris. “It gives you an opportunity to be a part of a setting that is going to help you no matter what field you go in to. It helps with developing proper time management, becoming an independently motivated performer, and learning to work within a team structure, which all become very important later in life for these kids. The college search is the first real job search of their lives. It is such an important process, and that is why this service is so important, because it is next to impossible to manage the process well if you don’t have help.”

In addition to the committee that helps and consults with parents and junior players on a regular basis, this service is also going to be introducing the College Recruiting Combine, with the first one set to be held this coming summer on June 11-12.

Harris spent this past summer visiting various other college showcases and talking with college coaches, and says those coaches are extremely excited about another showcase being added. The combine is beneficial to all involved, as it allows coaches to recruit more efficiently and see more players than they would be able to normally, and also allows players from the Eastern Section to showcase their skills in front of about 100 college coaches.

The Combine will be held at Sportime Randall’s Island and is open to all players from the Eastern Section and throughout the United States. It will be unique in that it will not only offer tennis playing exposure, but the College Recruiting Combine will also include tennis analytics, fitness testing and even sports psychology and strategy testing. Head college coaches from all across the country have already confirmed their attendance to this prestigious showcase.

The overall goal of this College Advisory Service and the soon-to-be College Recruiting Combine is to help parents and players navigate the intense process of the college search. The experience and relationship between Harris and Kossoff allow them to give guidance to a recruiting world that most struggle to grasp.

“The reason I am able to do what I do now for a living is because of the experience I had as a college tennis player,” said Kossoff. “If we can get kids to have half as much fun as I did, then it is a win-win all around.”

John McEnroe and Jay Harris, general manager of Sportime Roslyn and a director at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy

Mike Kossoff celebrates a win while at Bowling Green

Sportime’s Mike Kossoff and Jay Harris as seen in their days at Bowling Green, look to draw upon their collegiate experiences in growing Sportime’s College Advisory Service