Jordan-Whitter is Ready to Bring UNE Tennis Visions to Life
by Kyle Relf
The University of New England announced the addition of men’s and women’s tennis as its 20th and 21st varsity sports in the spring of 2024. By the end of that summer, Jovan Jordan-Whitter was hired as the head coach of both programs.
Since then, Jordan-Whitter has been tasked with building rosters from scratch, while UNE has revamped its tennis courts. The Blue Cyclone Complex, the Nor’easters’ state-of-the-art outdoor tennis facility, equipped with six courts, a full press box, and bleacher seating, is located on Biddeford’s Old Pool Road.
Jordan-Whitter came to UNE after leading both the men’s and women’s teams at the University of Massachusetts–Boston, where he was named the Little East Conference (LEC) Coach of the Year in the fall of 2023, having guided the women to an 11-2 overall record, a perfect 8-0 conference mark, and an LEC title.
Hailing from Bermuda, Jordan-Whitter never saw himself becoming a Mainer but was drawn to the challenge of building the new programs UNE presented.
“I have never had the opportunity to build a program from nothing,” he said. “The idea of it being my own vision is something that really spoke to me.”
The path to fulfilling that vision has begun in 2025-26, where success is defined less by wins and losses and more by the visibility of the programs. Jordan-Whitter looks forward to seeing the UNE community supporting the newly minted teams in their first year of varsity action, and he identifies that as the first step in bringing home a Conference of New England title in the future.
“I would like for my teams and the University to be known as up-and-comers who everyone knows are going to be really good in a few years because of the amount of support as well as the amount of work that’s being put in,” he shared. “That’s how you start laying the foundation for becoming a nationally recognized program.”
For now, Jordan-Whitter looks to begin building a championship culture in the early days of UNE tennis, and it starts with forming the right habits.
“Everything matters,” he said. “The day-to-day stuff: going to class on time, doing your homework, keeping your grades up, and showing up to practice early.
“If you have extraordinary habits, you will have extraordinary results. I want to recruit players in that vision, laying out the expectations and giving them the autonomy to go out and do it themselves.”
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Bonus Content
Snapshots from the first Blue Cyclone Complex Game and Nor’easters Practice
