Men's Tennis Adds Volunteer Assistant Coach Sonam Phuntsok to Staff

TUCSON, Ariz. - Volunteer Assitant Coach Sonam Phuntsok joins the Arizona Men's Tennis coaching staff for his first season with the Wildcats. Hailing from Manali, India, he was a top 30 juniors player in U18 and is fluent in five different languages.

Phuntsok played for Lewis and Clark State College from 2012-2016. He was the captain of the team in both his junior and senior year, leading them to a GSAC conference championship his senior year, as well as the second round of the NAIA tournament. He won the 2014 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship/Leadership National Award and earned his degree in psychology with a minor in theater.

After college, Phuntsok coached at John McEnroe's Tennis Academy in New York City with the top juniors in the region for one year. He returned back to India to coach at the Team Tennis Academy for a year before earning a job as the assistant coach at Seattle University from 2018-2021 for both men's and women's tennis.

As an assistant coach at Seattle, he helped recruit one of the best classes in program history and coached their No. 1 doubles team to an all-conference selection with two singles players making the list as well. While at Seattle University, he got his masters in sports business leadership.