by Tom Utescher

As a high school and college student, Ryan Gargullo was an accomplished tennis player for the old Chestnut Hill Academy and then for La Salle University. After that, a series of coaching and instructional positions eventually led to a two-year stay at Florida’s Evert Tennis Academy that ended earlier this year.

Now Gargullo has returned to his roots in the Northwest Philadelphia area. He’s moving into a new home in Blue Bell with his wife and young son, and he’s been appointed the head coach for the men’s and women’s tennis programs at Chestnut Hill College.

From 2010 to 2012, Gargullo served as an assistant coach for the architect of the successful CHC racquet teams, Albert Stroble. Stroble stepped down after the 2014-15 academic year to devote more time to a career in real estate, and another former assistant, Nate Geigle, guided the Griffins last year.

“This has been a homecoming for me,” Gargullo said. “I’d kept in touch with Albert, and he actually helped us find our home here. When they combined the men’s and women’s coaching positions at the college to make it a full time job, he kept telling me to look into it, and it really did turn out to be a great fit for me. I’m excited to have the opportunity to continue to excellent legacy left by Albert, and to keep the program moving forward.”

In the season just past, both the men’s and women’s teams finished as runner-up in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, a well-regarded NCAA Division II collection of teams. When the school year ended in June, the men were ranked third and the women fourth in the ITA East Regional poll, and in the ITA regional singles rankings, three women appeared in the top 18 and two men in the top 12.

A major factor in the Griffins’ ascent is that the school has been able to attract a number of talented foreign-born players, who in recent years have hailed from almost everywhere from Australia to Belarus.

“Albert had built up the program at Holy Family (in Northeast Philadelphia) before he came to Chestnut Hill,” Gargullo related. “When he started to attract the international athletes to Chestnut Hill, things really began to pick up.

“The college has the appeal of being in a major city,” he went on, “with all the business and professional connections that come with that. Once we can get kids to visit the campus, that becomes another major selling point. Our program has established good relationships with placement agencies that serve student athletes looking to attend college in the U.S.”

Gargullo’s origins are much more local. In their grade school days, he and his two younger siblings all attended Ancillae Assumpta Academy in Wyncote. His brother Ron followed him to both CHA and La Salle, and their younger sister Rhea played tennis at Mount St. Joseph Academy.

After a successful high school career, Ryan Gargullo worked his way to the top of La Salle’s tennis team ladder in the middle of his freshman year, and played first singles for the remainder of his tenure with the Explorers. As a senior, he was able to play doubles along with his brother Ron, then a freshman.

He earned a degree in special and elementary education, and remained involved in tennis as an assistant coach for the team at the University of Pennsylvania. Later, he was an assistant at La Salle and an instructor at Cheltenham Racquet Club before joining the staff at Chestnut Hill College.

After leaving CHC, he spent some time back in a club setting at the Tennis Addiction Sports Club in Exton, Pa. From there he and his wife, Rie, whom he married in 2013, moved to Boca Raton, Fla., where Gargullo assumed the duties of Director of College Placement with the Evert organization.

This allowed him to keep in touch with the collegiate tennis scene, while also working with talented young tennis prospects and helping to run International Tennis Federation (ITF) events and conduct clinics overseas.

He was building an impressive resume down in Florida, but his wife, like himself, was from the Philadelphia area, and he explained, “We always knew we’d be moving back to this area.”

The family, now with son Myles, returned early this year, and Ryan worked at the Legacy Tennis Center in East Falls until the position at Chestnut Hill College became available. With a new home just a few minutes from the college and with his son due to start pre-school at Ancillae, it appears that CHC won’t be conducting another search for a tennis coach any time soon. Rie Gargullo, Ryan’s wife, works as an emergency room nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

He had an inkling before, but now Gargullo is fully realizing just how big a step it is to move from an assistant’s role up to the post of head coach at a thriving college franchise.

“When you’re an assistant, you’re working with the players in practices and matches and the main focus is just winning out on the court.” he said. “There are many other things involved for a head coach. You want to bring in the right players for the team and for the school, and you want to develop a mentoring relationship.

“You want to see that the players maintain their grades,” he continued, “and also that they fit in socially and you have harmony on the team. You have to look at the big picture and define your team goals and expectations, so it’s a lot more than just chasing wins.”