Luis Heredia arrived at Marquette in 2017 with the goal of competing in college tennis.
He won the Big East Championship in 2018 after coming from Spain to the United States, met his wife, earned three All-Big East second team appearances in four years and received a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing.
Heredia split time between Milwaukee and New York for almost a year after graduation and then made the decision to make Milwaukee home — also occasionally going back to his native Spain to visit family.
He grew up playing tennis with his dad as his coach and has traveled to 33 countries for the sport.
Now, after extensive globetrotting and while balancing his career in finance, he is back in the blue & gold this season, volunteering as Marquette’s assistant coach starting this season.
“I felt like I needed to give something back to the program, if it’s my time,” Heredia said. “Helping all those players that I’ve had a connection with, even when I stopped the program, I’ve always wanted to help.”
Heredia doesn’t travel with the team or attend regular practices. Instead, he finds time to instruct players whenever he can to supplement Marquette’s practice schedule, while still prioritizing his career as an investment adviser at Paramount Financial Partners.
It makes for some early mornings and late evenings, assisting the tennis team on top of working 10-11 hours a day. But it is all worth it to him.
“It’s trying to fit it wherever I can in the day-to-day,” Heredia said.
Marquette men’s tennis head coach Jud Shaufler has always seen Heredia’s motivation, all the way back to Heredia’s time as a player and Shaufler’s time as an assistant under Steve Rodecap. It made Heredia one of Shaufler’s all-time favorites.
“I had a ton of respect for his competitive fire, and when a player shows me that kind of heart, it makes it easy to coach,” Shaufler said. “He was always easy to coach, because I knew that he was going to lay it all on the line for me, so that immediately bonded us together a little bit.”
Heredia’s eye for detail stood out to Shaufler in his leadership style, as this serves as his first collegiate coaching opportunity in his young career.
“He’s not going to soft soak anything, if he sees a guy isn’t competing hard enough, they’re not coachable or not changing a losing game, he’s going to be pretty honest,” Shaufler said. “That’s a good quality to have.”
Teddy Wong, a senior from River Hills, Wis., said that Heredia’s insight and high-level experience has added a new perspective in which to learn from.
“He knows what it takes to be a good team and to be successful in the Big East,” Wong said.
Against Creighton on April 10, sophomore Clayton Anderson found himself trailing after an 0-6 first set at the No. 3 singles position. With Heredia’s help, he gave up only five more games the rest of the match and won in three sets.
“Luis was noticing my shot quality. It was landing short often, he helped me get through the mental block, a little bit more depth, using my spin and spreading the cord a bit,” Anderson said.
As Heredia’s first season coaching Marquette tennis wraps up soon, the aspects of combining his love of tennis with his alma mater has fueled his fire to pursue this pathway.
“I think Marquette has been the most important period of my life,” Heredia said. “In the transition from one place to another, having Milwaukee as my home — it’s giving back, just being involved in the sport and being present here is what motivates me to be able to help them every single day.”
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.
