Bio

Jami Jones enters her 12th season as the SDCC Head Women’s Tennis Coach in 2024. The Knights finished 2nd in the PCAC Conference and 20th in the state in 2023. The top four players: Sinaia Haskal, Lucia Farmer, Faith Satrya, and Charlee Fitzmaurice earned All-Conference honors in both singles and doubles. Haskal was a finalist in both singles and doubles in the PCAC Conference Individual Tournament and achieved state rankings of #38 in singles and #31 in doubles with Satrya. In addition, several players were ITA Scholar Athletes and as a team they earned ITA All Academic honors. Two of her players, Faith Satrya and Charlee Fitzmaurice were awarded the prestigious Harry West Scholarship in 2023 to continue their studies at four-year universities. Satrya is attending UCLA and Fitzmaurice is attending Long Beach State.

Prior to Jones taking over the Lady Knights Tennis Program, the team had not had a winning record in over ten years. During her tenure, the Knights have turned things around, particularly on the doubles court. Sinaia Haskal and Faith Satrya were finalists in the PCAC Tournament in 2023. Olivia Strong and Charlee Fitzmaurice were finalists in 2022, and Eliza Wearren & Palia Griffin were the PCAC Conference Doubles Champions in 2019. As a team, the Lady Knights finished 2nd in the conference in 2018 and qualified for the dual team state playoffs. Jones overall PCAC record is 55-45.

The Lady Knights earned state team rankings of #20 in 2023, #18 in 2019, #15 in 2018, and #19 in 2017. Jones has also had several players attain individual state rankings in both singles and doubles: Sinaia Haskal (2023-#38), Sinaia Haskal/Faith Satrya (2023-#31), Lucia Farmer/Charlee Fitzmaurice (2023-#33), Olivia Strong (2022-#16), Eliza Wearren (2019-#38) Eliza Wearren/Palia Griffin (2019-#19) Josah Corpuz (2018-#40), Marilyn Kathka (2018-#69), Erica Letzring (2018-#71), Josah Corpuz/Marilyn Kathka (2018-#26). Erica Letzring (2017-#25), Briana Hooks (2017-#41), Brianna Leigh-Pink (2017-#74), Briana Hooks/Marilyn Kathka (2017-#44), Briana Hooks/Lily Yamauchi (2015-#43).

In the past nine seasons, Jones has consistently qualified players for the regional championships at Ojai and she has coached twelve PCAC All-Conference players: Sinaia Haskal (2023-singles & Doubles) Lucia Farmer(2023-singles & Doubles), Faith Satrya (2023-singles & doubles), Olivia Strong (2022-singles & doubles), Charlee Fitzmaurice(2022/23-Singles & Doubles), Eliza Wearren (2019-singles & doubles), Palia Griffin (2019 singles & doubles) Josah Corpuz (2018-singles & doubles), Marilyn Kathka (2017/18-doubles) Briana Hooks (2015/2017 singles & doubles), Erica Letzring (2017-singles) Phillyn Frederick (2014-singles).

Jones emphasizes good sportsmanship, team camaraderie, and hard work in her program. She strives to work with each of her players to help them reach both their academic and athletic goals. She takes pride in the fact that several of her players have transferred to and graduated from: UCLA, SDSU, UCSD, Long Beach State, Sacramento State, Cal State Stanislaus, Cal State San Marcos, and UC Santa Cruz. In her time at City, Jones has had several ITA Scholar-Athletes: Lucia Farmer (2023), Charlee Fitzmaurice (2023), Madeline Satrya (2023), Arleen Torres (2023), Sinaia Haskal (2023), Faith Satrya (2022/23), Leila Adel (2022/23), Karen Lopo (2015, 2016), Anabel Caiazzo (2015), and Marilyn Kathka (2017). Her team earned ITA All-Academic

status in both 2022 and 2023. They also received the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Community Service and Outreach Award in 2017. Her goal is for her players to develop the skills necessary to succeed at whatever they choose to do when they graduate from San Diego City College.

The Lady Knights Tennis Team is not the first time that Jones has turned a losing program around. Prior to taking over the SDCC Women’s Tennis Team, Jones was the Head Women’s Tennis Coach at Long Beach State University. When Jones started at Long Beach in 1992, the program was nearly last in the Big West Conference. She took the team from a 4-10 record in ’92 to 17-7 and a 3rd place conference finish in ’97 when she left to start her family in San Diego.

As a highly ranked junior player Jones attended the University of Miami on a tennis scholarship from 1986-1990. In 1988, she was an NCAA Doubles finalist and All-American. Jones is a member of the University of Miami 20-Win Club (20+ wins in a single season) as well as the 50 -Win Club (50+ wins over collegiate career) with a record of 77-31. While at the “U”, Jones held the single season record for most singles wins in 1988-89(20-9). Jones earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature from the University of Miami; graduating both cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Jones also earned Academic All-American Honors.

Jones continues to be an active member of the San Diego Tennis Community. She was recently awarded the 2023 Women and Girls Who Ace Award by the Southern California Tennis Association which recognizes an outstanding Southern California-based leader and role model, dedicated to the mentorship and advancement of women in sport. In 2012, she won the ITF Senior World Championships in the women’s 40’s doubles division with partner Deborah Higa. Also, with Higa, Jones was the runner up in the Women’s National 40’s Hardcourts in 2017 and the National 50’s in 2018. She is a USPTA certified Elite Pro. She was the USPTA San Diego Division North County Vice President from 2017-2019 USPTA and served on the San Diego District Tennis Association Board from 2014-2019. In 2013, she was awarded the SDDTA Sportswoman of the Year Award as well as the Maureen Connelly Brinker Sportsmanship Award. In 2016 she was the USPTA Female Player of the Year and the San Diego District Tennis Association Female Coach of the Year. She and her husband, Eugene, have three sons: Kyle, Ty, and Dylan.

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” Vince Lombardi