Thomas Sevel - Men's Tennis Coach - Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns

Thomas Sevel

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
thomas.sevel@louisiana.edu

Thomas Sevel was named the 11th head coach in program history on September 26, 2024. Sevel had previously served as the program's assistant coach since August of 2022.

In his first season as head coach, Sevel's squad won 10 matches against a difficult schedule while juggling injuries in singles. Louisiana won four in a row to open February and won six of eight matches overall in the month. Oriol Fillat Gimenez capped his collegiate career with nine singles wins between courts one and two to earn All-Sun Belt Conference Second Team honors. Samuel Kyjaci had a big year, winning 12 singles matches and tying for the team lead with eight doubles wins.

During Sevel's time as an assistant, the Cajuns won 41 matches and were nationally-ranked in 2022 and 2023, reaching as high as No. 37 in the country. In 2024, the team reached the Sun Belt Conference semifinals for the first time since 2015 while playing one of the most difficult schedules in the conference. Sevel has helped raise Louisiana's profile that included playing multiple matches against some of the best programs in the nation.

The Cajuns continued their strong play into 2023, posting two five-match winning streaks and finishing No. 74 in the nation, one of three Louisiana schools to finish nationally ranked. They finished third in the SBC for the second straight season and knocked off rival South Alabama for the first time since 2015. The doubles duo of Karlo Kajin and Alejanro Sanchez Gonzalez completed the year ranked No. 72 in the country and were named first team All-SBC.

Louisiana earned the No. 3 seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament by racing out to a 4-0 start in league play which included an impressive 4-1 win over No. 1 seed Georgia State on March 27 at Cajun Courts.

A native of Saint-Raphael, France, Sevel joined the Ragin’ Cajuns with a wealth of coaching experience both internationally and collegiately with coaching experience at Paris West Tennis Academy and Odyssey Tennis Academy in France, as well as a stint at the Legacy Youth Tennis and Education Center in Philadelphia.

Sevel also spent two years (2019-21) at his alma mater, Temple, working as a graduate assistant for the men's and women's tennis programs. During the 2021-22 season, he was on staff as a volunteer assistant with Harvard’s women’s tennis program.

Prior to arriving in the United States in 2014, Sevel competed on the junior tennis circuit throughout Europe. He began playing collegiately at Augusta (Ga.) University, then after finishing undefeated in his second season he transferred to Temple where he played No. 1 singles and doubles for two additional years, reaching a UTR high of 13.2.

Sevel received his bachelor’s degree in business management from Temple in 2019 and continued on to earn his master’s degree in sport business with a concentration in marketing and promotions in 2021.