Gary Victor Last College: Rutgers Height: 5-10 Position: Head Coach Experience: 13th Season

Matador head coach Gary Victor begins his 12th season with the Northridge women's tennis program in 2008. Victor returns after leading the 2007 team to its highest final national ranking since 2003 and finished 11-7 and tied for third in the Big West Conference.

Behind the play of All-Big West honorees senior Silvia Gutierrez and juniors Canna Furuta and Kanykey Koichumanova, CSUN finished 69th in the final according to the final FILA/College Tennis Online Poll.

The 2006 Matadors finished 16-7 overall record and a third-place finish at the 2006 Big West Championships. Victor holds an overall record of 133-93 at Northridge and coached four Matadors to All-Big West Conference honors in 2006. The quartet of Canna Furuta, Silvia Gutierrez, Kanykey Koichumanova and YuYu Myinttun each earned spots on the all-league squad.

In 2004, Victor earned his 100th win at CSUN with a 5-2 triumph over Lewis and Clark State on Jan. 30, 2004. Northridge ended the 2003 campaign with a 14-9 overall record and finished as the 65th-ranked team in the nation, the highest year-end ranking in school history.

Victor was named Big Sky Coach of the Year in 2001 after the Matadors (22-9) won the Big Sky Conference Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

A Matador assistant during the 1995-96 season, Victor was hired as the head coach of the CSUN women's tennis team on Aug. 29, 1997. He was later named the Director of Tennis on Oct. 15, 1998.

During his collegiate years, Victor was a four-year starter at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., playing at the No. 1 singles position during the 1989 and 1990 seasons. During those years, he defeated five All-Americans and reached the Atlantic 10 Conference singles finals. He was the Most Valuable Player for the Scarlet Knights in 1989 and '90 and was also a two-time team captain.

Victor graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and mass media from Rutgers in 1991 and was on the Dean's List in 1988 and '91. After graduation, Victor worked as a producer of the American Gladiators and Gladiators 2000 television series. He has since earned 24 credits towards his master's degree in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling at Northridge. Victor earned a degree as a specialist in the USTA's High Performance Coaching Program in 2001. He was also the head coach of the San Fernando Valley Competition Training Center Team. Victor was named USPTA's California College Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2003 and coached the Southern California 12's Zonals Champions in July 2005.

Victor and his wife Shirley have two children, Emma (4) and Kyra (2), and reside in Thousand Oaks.